Stranger Than Most (Part 1 Finished! Part 2 Coming Soon!)
by inu-chan supermeiu
Summary: Meeting these strange kids in this strange house made me nervous. This whole situation made me nervous. I tried so hard not to be put in a place for troubled children. Now here I was, trying my best to blend in and act normal. I had done it for most of my life, so how come it was getting so hard to do it now?-Takes place from the very beginning of the series, eventual Chlerek!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello fellow Darkest Powers Fans / Chlerek fans! This is my first time writing on fan fiction, so any criticisms are welcome! I loved this series so much growing up, and was starting to run out of fanficitions to read, so here I am! Trying to create more! Hope you guys enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Kelley Armstrong's series or characters.**

I was five years old when it first started happening. Strange people started appearing, looking as though they didn't really fit in with the crowd. They looked like they instead belonged in the E.R. or at a halloween party, and started to pop up in the crowd whenever my parents took me out. I would always stare, wondering what was wrong with them, and why nobody else was staring at their strange costumes. I tried pointing them out to my parents, but they just smiled and nodded, asking if these people were my new friends that I had created. I don't blame them for thinking that, really. I was a kid, a kid who had a crazy fascination with movies. I was probably perceived as a child with a ridiculous amount of imagination. But, I knew these weren't the friends that I used to create. These friends were…..different, with their hollow eyes, blood stained strange clothing, and with the way they treated me. Every strange person was different of course, some would ask me my name, and what was my favorite color. These people would still scare me, but my mom always told me to be nice towards others. So I would answer these strangers until they would smile and fade away.

I remember others being not so nice.

After mom passed away, my dad made it a point to stay as busy as possible with his job. Still, I never blamed him for leaving. I could only imagine how painful it was, watching his daughter grow up when he believed that mom should have been there instead, taking care of me and watching me smile. I got angry sometimes, when he would forget an important day or have to reschedule an ice cream date, but those moments were fleeting. Instead, my Aunt Lauren would try to make up for it, taking me out whenever she could. Aunt Lauren was probably another reason why my dad decided to stay gone. She had blamed him for the loss of her sister, and took every opportunity to bring him down. I stood up for him when I could, but I soon learned that it was better just to avoid that topic of conversation all together. But I loved them both, regardless of their flaws. Who was I to judge? I considered my flaw to be the biggest of them all. I grew up realizing that those who claimed to see the dead were usually thrown into some kind of asylum or psych ward. In order to protect myself and the family I had left, I kept quiet. I stopped talking about the man with the noose around his neck, or the old lady that would talk about her long lost garden. For a long time, I just stopped talking in general. I figured that if I didn't speak to anyone (besides my family and those I knew to be alive), then I wouldn't make the mistake of talking to someone already dead. My lack of speech was considered to be a result of my mom's death, which I guess was part of it. How can you talk when you have nothing left to say?

As the days rolled by, the ghosts started to bother me less and less, realizing that I wouldn't be able to help them in any way. Once in awhile, I would get persistent ones, the ones who would yell and cry and plead with me. But eventually, they left too, and I would sit alone in my room and fight the waves of emptiness and what I could only describe as despair. I was starting to feel like a terrible human being.

Today, however, seemed to be worse than others.

It started out as a normal day, a good day, actually. I woke up to the sound of my alarm and groaned at the thought of going to school. Quickly pressing down my alarm, I rolled out of bed jumped into my cold shower, waking myself up. Afterwards, I quickly got dressed and ran out into the kitchen, the smells of bacon and eggs emanating from the kitchen. I smiled softly at the sight of dad cooking. He didn't do this often, only for special occasions, but when he did…. Let's just say that I could rival a kid on Christmas.

I went up behind him, giving him a quick hug. I barely reached his head, standing at just five feet. While my height annoyed me sometimes, I could easily fix any problem I had with a stool or really tall friend.

"Morning, dad. What's the occasion?" I asked, moving to his side and snagging a piece of bacon from off of the paper towel. He turned to me and smiled, his eyes tired but filled with pride.

"Well, turns out the company liked my plan to reform the company and suggestions on how to branch it further. I've basically been promoted." I let my smile get wider. While I didn't know much about what my dad did for a living, I knew that it was something that he loved doing.

"That's great! Are you ready to take charge?" He nodded simply as he grabbed the plates from the cupboard and started dishing up breakfast.

"Go sit down, there's more news I need to talk to you about before you head off." His smile faded a bit, and I felt my mood drop slightly. I nodded and took my plate and sat down, waiting for him to take a seat as well. I began stuffing my mouth as he started to talk.

"With this new job, I'll most likely be gone more. Because it was my idea, they're sending me to Europe first to start negotiations and planning. After Europe will be China, then somewhere in Canada."

I nodded slowly, still keeping a small smile on my face to show him that I still was okay with his new position. It hurt, knowing he would be so far away, but I had accepted long ago that dad's parenting techniques were… abnormal.

"Each deployment will be for at least a month. You'll of course still have the housekeeper here to take care of you, but I've also informed Aunt Lauren, and she'll make sure to stop by more often as well." I winced. I could only imagine how that conversation went for him.

He gave a small laugh at my reaction. "Yeah, you don't want to know." I gave a small giggle, glad for the quick release of tension. It hurt my dad to have Aunt Lauren hate him, but around me he tried to play it off as just simple arguments. I was secretly happy for the fact, I hated hearing how hard it was for them to get along.

"So when do you leave for Europe?" I asked him quietly, getting up and putting both of our plates in the sink.

"Well, here's some good news again. I've requested that before every trip, I take about a week and a half to two weeks off. So I'll be home until the end of the month." I turned quickly to face him and smiled. While a small part of me was anxious about how we would get along with him home for so long, a larger part of me was happy that he was actually trying.

He stood up and patted my head, making his way to his bedroom door. "Have a good day at school. I'll pick you up and take you to get some ice cream and movies."

I don't think my smile could have gotten any wider. For someone who wasn't home too often, he knew exactly what I liked. "Got it! Enjoy sleeping in!" With that, I hurried and grabbed my things and ran out of the door, practically jumping off the stairs in my rush to get to school and get the day over with.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hello friends! Welcome to the second chapter! This one gets a little more exciting. Hope you enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, they are owned by a Ms. Kelley Armstrong.**

Compared to the many other schools that I had been to (and when I say many, I mean _many_ ), this one wasn't so bad. This school had a major focus on performing arts, so while there were kids who were snotty based on their parents social standing, a lot of others had something in common to talk about and enjoyed sharing their interests. Because of my average appearance, and my below average height, I was hardly noticed in the school, par for the two or three friends that I occasionally hung out with. Even then, I made sure not to draw too much attention with them.

My first few classes I had by myself, so I usually didn't see them until about lunch, which, to be honest, I was glad for. They were nice people, but sometimes I felt highly awkward around them.

 _I'm not used to such…._ lively _people._

I gave a wry smile to myself as I made my way to class, stumbling and trying to stay out of others' ways. I gave a sigh of relief as I stepped into the classroom, no longer fearing being trampled to death. I made my way to my seat in the middle. Not too far in the back, but not too close to the front either. Perfectly normal student.

The bell rang as the rest of the students shuffled into their seats, talking about last night's assignment…. Who said what… the normal gossip. As soon as the teacher walked in, everyone sat quietly and listened, while I took out my notes and prepared for just another day.

It was around third period when something felt…. Off. Way off. My stomach was hurting, everything felt too bright, and my mood was starting to drop. It was when I felt like I had peed my pants that I stood from my seat, grabbed my jacket, and rushed out of the classroom squeaking a quick "B-bathroom" to my teacher. I must have looked as weird as I felt, because the teacher just turned back to the board and continued the lesson, refraining from any comments.

As soon as I had made it to the bathroom, I quickly made it into the stall and slammed the door shut. The noise made me wince, but that was less dire than the thought of just peeing myself in class.

I soon discovered, that I had in fact _not_ peed my pants. Lucky me.

If anyone had been watching me (thank goodness no one was, living or dead), they would have been concerned for my mental well being. I was smiling down at my now reddish underwear, happy for the fact that this marked me as a woman, as cliche and silly as that sounds. But come on! I was sixteen and still hadn't had my first period! I knew of kids who started when they were twelve, for crying out loud! I was starting to worry!

I rolled up some toilet paper and made due, walking out of the stall to wash my hands and return to class. As happy as I was though, I didn't really appreciate the massive headache and the too-bright lights. I sighed quietly as I approached my classroom door.

Just as I was about to touch the handle, I froze. That off feeling came again. My head gave a bit of an extra stab of pain, while my stomach decided on doing all it could to make me uncomfortable. All in all, it felt a bit foreboding. Shaking my head and chalking it up to my period and the possibility of a ghost nearby, I went back to opening the door and walking back to my seat. After sitting for about ten minutes, the pain became a bit worse. I laid my head on the table, enjoying the cool feeling of the desk for about a minute before the teacher decided to comment about my behavior.

"Ms. Saunders, is my lesson that boring to you?" A few giggles erupted through the classroom as I slowly raised my head. I smiled as politely as I could, my face slowly turning red from the attention.

"N-no ma'am. J-just a h-h-h…." as I struggled through the last word, my eyes caught something oozing out of one of the ceiling tiles. As I stared, the black ooze slowly dripped down onto the floor.

 _Drip. Drip. Drip._

"Ms. Saunders, we only have about thirty minutes left of class. If you're not feeling well, see the nurse during passing period." My attention snapped back to her.

"O-of course, sorry for i-interrupting." She nodded and continued reading from the book in front of her to the class. I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself before trying to turn back to the lesson.

 _Drip. Drip. Drip._

My eyes drifted from my notes back to where the leak was in the front corner of the room, only a few feet from the teacher. The black ooze had formed an inky puddle on the ground, growing with each drip. Judging by the lack of comments, I figured it was something that no one could see. Which was strange, even for me. Usually, the ghosts just came as they were, face and all, well, all that was left really. I couldn't say that I had witnessed ghost ooze before. For some strange reason, I couldn't look away. It just kept dripping, and soon the sound of each drop falling drowned out any other noise, echoing each time a new drop hit the puddle.

I was able to turn my gaze back to the teacher for ten more minutes before I noticed that the it wasn't just drops anymore. The ooze had started just spilling onto the floor, sliding past my teacher's shoes and approaching the first row of the class. This was wrong. Something was wrong. My stomach twisted, and my headache throbbed even more. I had to place my head in my hands, closing my eyes tightly and trying to ignore the sound of the spilling from the ceiling. I only moved to jump as I heard a soft thump from somewhere in the room.

No, not from the room… from the ceiling.

I looked around the room quickly, seeing if anyone had heard anything. No one had moved, just focusing on their work, scribbling down notes quickly and raising their hands for questions. The thumping continued slowly, and sounded as if it was moving towards the corner where the slime and first started dripping.

 _Thump. Scratch. Thump. Thump._

This wasn't normal.

I started shaking slightly, looking up to the ceiling toward where the thumping sounded. Then, suddenly, it stopped right above me.

 _Not good. Not good. Not good._ My mind chanted. I tried taking deep breaths, but nothing seemed to work. The lights flickered above us, and I managed to hear some students murmuring something about a storm going on outside. In that instant, the ooze stopped and my headache receded. I took a quick breath of relief, my nerves relaxing as I felt the presence leave. I told myself that it was just some jerk of a ghost trying to get a reaction out of me, like the janitor who sometimes roamed the hallways. I sat back in my chair and checked the clock. Only eight more minutes until the bell rang. I looked to where our teacher was writing the next assignment on the board when I heard a large creak from above me. I jumped and looked up, the hairs on the back of my neck rising as a chill settled deep into my bones.

One long, pale and dirty finger slid from the crack, then another, then another, and curled around the edge, pushing the tile further down. A head slowly peered out, looking around the room slowly. I couldn't take my eyes off of this… this… thing. It looked as if its skin was too tight for its own skeleton, looking as if the skin would rip at any second. Its neck looked too long, stretching out to look at everyone in the classroom. The thing must have felt my eyes, because all of a sudden its head whipped around and met my gaze. I opened my mouth to scream, but all that I could force out was a quiet whimper. My breath felt frozen in my chest, and I felt ready to vomit at any moment. I could feel my body shaking, moving the desk along with me. My hands clutched the desk for dear life.

Slowly, the thing slid from the ceiling tile to the floor in front of me, never breaking eye contact. His eyes…. Oh God help me…. Where his eyes should have been… were sunken in and completely black, with a little white light shining through the middle of each hole. He had no mouth, no nose, just stretched skin over his face.

I forgot where I was, and who all was around me. I vaguely heard the teacher asking if I was alright, but I couldn't move to answer her. My eyes and my body were frozen stiff.

The creature brought its legs up to stand and kneel on my desk in front of me. As it moved closer, I couldn't help but let out a sob. Its eyes quickly moved to my mouth then back to my eyes. Slowly, the skin around the middle part of its face slowly ripped apart, the skin snapping like old rubber bands to show what resembled a smile. My breath came out in small gasps, unable to get any air into my lungs.

"Liiittttttllllleeee Giiirrrrrrrrlllllllllll….." It crackled slowly. I couldn't stop from openly crying now, I tried to move my hands, my legs, my fingers, anything, but I couldn't. All I could do was shake and cry.

"Liiiittttttlllleeee Giiiirrrllllllllll…. I ssseeeeee yooouuuuu nooowwww….." All of a sudden, it threw its head back and let out a high pitch maniac- like laugh as it grabbed my hands and cut along the inside of my wrists with its thumb. The feeling of warm blood on my wrist was enough to snap me out of my frozen state. I screamed and pulled my hands away as fast as I could, only making the cuts go across my palms. I slid and tumbled out of my desk as quickly as I could, pushing past anyone that had stood up during my outburst. I pulled open the door and saw in my peripheral the thing snap its head toward me and start to get up. I didn't wait a second longer to run out into the hall, still screaming.

"No no nonononono! Go away! GO AWAY!" I screamed as I made it to the end of the hall. I could see classroom doors slamming open to see what was going on, but I couldn't stop to ask for help. No one could see this thing, this thing that was at the end of the hallway, slowly following me and cackling that horrible high pitched laugh. I stopped looking behind me and quickly tried to figure a way out of here. I couldn't go to the first floor, the stairs were near that thing. I quickly made a decision and headed toward one of the windows. We were on the second floor, so the fall would hurt, but it was my only option in getting out of here. I slid and crashed into the window, pushing back and quickly opening it. As soon as I had one foot out of the window, the thing screeched.

"No! No leave! Little Girl! Can't eat little girl outside!" Absently, I heard the other teachers yelling and running, making their way over here. I quickly pulled my other foot over the window and jumped right in time, feeling one of the things fingers tear a part off my shirt. I was able to land on my feet, but my knees immediately buckled and my head fell forward and hit one of the big rocks in the yard. My vision went blurry, and I was barely able to push myself to the side before I saw black, the last thing I heard was the screeching of that creature.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Another day another chapter! Enjoy and don't be afraid to critique! I probably need all the help I can get!**

 **Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine, unfortunately. They are owned by a Ms. Kelley Armstrong!**

Everything past that was a blur. I woke to the feeling of being lifted onto something flat, then being lifted again to be carried somewhere. I heard murmurs, people talking quietly about the amount of blood lost, a head injury, and possible sprained ankles. I tried to open my eyes further, but it seemed that they would only open halfway, something heavy holding them down. My ears were ringing, but it wasn't loud enough for me to still hear the cries of that… that thing in the school. I needed to tell these people. I needed to tell them not to take me back there. I tried to pry open my mouth, and managed to get out a single sound before I was being hushed.

"Sh, sweetie. It'll be okay. We'll get you healed up and get you some help. It'll be okay." Her voice sounded shaky and tired, and I felt fingers softly brush my hair. Everything felt and sounded so far away. I could hear the sound of doors closing and an engine starting.

"A-aunt…."

"Sh, I'm right here, I'm not leaving." I had to warn her. That thing was dangerous, it was still there. I could feel its eyes on me.

"N-No. Do-on't take me b-b-back t-t-there." It was so hard to stay awake, to actually talk, but I needed to warn her, to warn anybody that would listen to me. "D-dangero-"

"We're headed to the hospital now, it'll be okay. We'll be far away from there." I still couldn't see here clearly, her voice the only thing identifying her. Still, the thought of us leaving that place allowed me to relax. I felt my eyes slowly drift close.

Apparently, I had slept for a while. I woke up staring up at a white wall with tacky painted flowers and butterflies. I felt a bit of a chill, but realized it was due to the hospital gown and the thin blankets that tucked me in. I blinked a couple times, trying to regain control of my senses. My head felt as though it was made of lead, pounding each time I moved my eyes. My hearing was slowly coming back, and I looked towards the sounds of soft breathing in the chair next to my bed.

"Dad." I croaked, letting out a small sigh of relief. He was crouched down, his head in his hands. At the sound of my voice, he jumped slightly and looked up with a tired smile.

"You're awake." He put his hand on top of my head, gently so as not to make my headache worse. "How do you feel?"

"Like I've been hit by a truck." I replied honestly, my voice barely above a whisper. I tried to clear my throat. "Water?"

He nodded and reached past me to grab a bottle of water off of the nightstand, along with a straw. He opened it and placed the straw in, then reached out to hand it to me. I moved to grab it, but froze when I saw the bandages on my hands.

All at once, everything hit me like a brick to the face. The school, the ooze, the window, the screeching of it as I was barely able to escape, the ghost. I shook my head.

That wasn't a ghost. There was no way that could be a ghost. It had touched me. I could still feel its hands wrapped around my wrists.

I could still feel its nails ripping through my skin as though I was made of tissue paper.

That _thing_ could touch me.

I suddenly felt that I couldn't get enough air into my lungs. My chest felt tight, and my wrists and hands started to throb. I distantly heard my dad call my name, trying to get my attention, then the hustle of a couple nurses making their way into my room. I could hear my heart monitor take off.

It could hurt me.

I felt two hands grab a hold of my wrists, making me jump and scream. It was the Thing, I knew it was. It had found me. It was going to kill me, right in front of my dad.

"No!" I screamed, all raspy. I couldn't see anymore, all I knew was I was being attacked again. That I was going to die.

"Please! Don't hurt me! Get off of me!" I suddenly felt a pinch in my arm, and I felt my body slow down. As my eyes started to again drift close, I could hear footsteps and a quiet conversation.

"I've made the arrangements. I think it's best we take her there tonight, while she's calm." I could hear my dad say something in response to this voice, but it was too quiet to make out. I drifted off back to sleep.

 _I really hope this'll be the last time I wake up in a strange place._ I thought to myself as I opened my eyes to see pale yellow walls. My brain felt foggy, but this time I remembered almost immediately why. I was out of control, they had to put me back to sleep, probably to keep me from hurting myself. I had seen it happen to other people before, when I visited my aunt while she worked with patients. It had been a scary thing to watch, but now I was realizing just how scary it was being the person put down.

I felt myself lying on a bed, not too big of one, but one that was pretty much perfect for my size. I looked around to see another bed on the opposite end of the room, the covers pushed around and the pillow lying on the floor. I glanced up as I heard the door to the windowless room open.

"Chloe! It's good to see you awake!" I stared at her, not talking, not knowing if she was just another ghost or someone that was alive. She was an older woman, gray haired and wide-hipped, with a kind smile on her face. She had made sound coming in, her footsteps shuffling along the floor. She was alive.

Or was she? The Thing had made some noise too. The creaking of the ceiling and the snapping of his face… but could I hear his footsteps?

"You must be so confused and scared, my dear! Don't you worry! Here at Lyle House, we make sure to take care of each and every teen that comes through here!" Just then, another woman walked through the door. This one seemed almost the opposite of the one now sitting on my bed. She was younger, her eyes tracing my movements. Her arms were crossed and her back was straight, as if she was expecting to tackle me down at a moment's notice.

"This is a group home for troubled teens. Your aunt and father deemed it best for you to stay here for a couple weeks, at least, to see if you can improve." Here words were clipped and straight to the point. I looked back to the first older lady as she spoke.

"My name is Mrs. Talbot, and the young lady over here is Miss Van Dop. We're just a small part of a team of nurses that will help you get better." She said with a smile, gently patting my head. I flinched a bit, but didn't move further as she made the gesture. As soon as she pulled away, I pulled myself up to sit. Making the assumption that they were alive, I allowed myself to speak.

"G-group home?" I asked quietly, feeling the dread pool in my stomach. This was exactly what I was trying to avoid.

"I heard you like movies, Chloe, but I can assure you that this place is nothing like what you've seen in those theatrical displays." She assured me. "You are free to go outside, as long as you stay in the designated area. You'll be continuing your classes with one of our teachers, Ms. Wang, and you'll also be able to email your friends when you like. There are others here too, and they'll assure you that it isn't so bad here. Just think of it as a quick break from society." I looked at her skeptically but nodded anyway. It would be better if I stayed on my best behavior. The better I behave, the quicker I would be able to leave.

"It's about breakfast time, so we need to head downstairs to dish up the food for everyone. We'll send up your roommate. She'll show you around the house. You will have a couple days of rest, before continuing your classes. Before then, you will be handed a chore list. Every person is expected to pull their own weight in this house." Ms. Van Dop said, before turning to the door with Mrs. Talbot. Mrs. Talbot turned to wave, saying "Elizabeth will be here shortly, get dressed and be ready to come on down when she gets here." I nodded as she shut the door.


	4. Chapter 4

As soon as I was able to button up the jeans I had just put on, the door slammed open to reveal a bubbly girl around my age. "You must be Chloe! Oh it's so nice to see someone new! Not that everyone here is really all that bad. In fact, making friends here isn't so hard. I'm just used to there being more people around. I actually just came from a really big high school a while ago. There were a ton of kids there…." I was taken completely by surprise as she made her way over to my closet, looking through the clothes that my aunt or one of the nurses had put up while I must've been sleeping. She continued on about school and clothes for a minute while I studied her. Her blonde hair was just a little darker than mine, her being more golden while mine was pale. Her eyes were a dark blue, rivaling my light. She made her way over to me, being at least four inches taller than me. She was making a ton of noise, so I guessed this was Elizabeth and not some chatty ghost.

"Sorry, Tori says that I can be scary with how much I talk. How old are you? You look like you're close to my age. Are you thirteen? Fourteen?"

I tried my best not to glare. She was just being nice. I forced a quick smile to my face. "Sixteen." A look of surprise flashed through her face. "Oh jeez, my bad. I always hated how people thought I was younger than I am, and here I go making the same mistake. You're definitely around our ages though. I think the youngest here would be Peter. He's about thirteen, I think…"

"Peter? Guys are here too?" I said, a bit surprised. My aunt agreed to this? She always hated the thought of boys being anywhere too close to me, not that she had to worry too much about it in the past…

"Yep! This place is coed. We all share the bottom floor, it's the top floor we split. The guys have the other side of the house. The nurses make sure we don't sneak over there, too. Like we would…" She thought for second. "Actually, I take that back, Tori would probably sneak over there, given the chance. She's real gutsy like that. And I might've, if Tori didn't already call dibs on Simon. Not that I'm all that interested anyway. Don't get me wrong! He's a really nice guy too. His brother is more quiet, though. He's a year older than us. Same with Rae, Tori and Simon are our age."

She kept on talking, and I nodded and smiled, keeping my guard up. She was really nice, but she was put in here for a reason, same with the others. Not saying that I was any better than the rest of them, but I had long ago confirmed that I wasn't just hallucinating.

As we made our way downstairs, Elizabeth - who actually wanted to go by Liz- went through the names of the crew of nurses. Besides the two that I have met and the teacher they had mentioned, there was also a Dr. Gill, the psychologist that each one of us had to talk to. There was also a third nurse by the name of Mrs. Abdo, but she only came in on weekends to give the other nurses a break.

The house was similar to the room upstairs. All painted in calming colors. House plants littered the corners of each room, and the smell of lemon cleaner scorched through the house. The living room had a worn, but comfortable look to it, calling out to me to sit and relax. If I ever had to create a set for an "average" group home, this would've made my list of choices.

We stopped by the dining room entryway, Liz pointing out the other members of the house. "Over there in the corner is Tori, her mood swings are legendary, but she's still a super nice person. She's actually my best friend. Over there is Rae, and she has a thing for fire, so just be careful." She smiled happily and took a seat next to Tori, starting to blab away.

Both girls had dark hair, but Tori's was short and it went well with her tall figure. Rae, on the other hand, was shorter with nice copper skin, and her hair flowed down into loose curls.

I took a seat close enough not to feel weird, but not close enough to really participate in any conversation. So far, I had to watch out for what I assumed was bipolar disorder as well as someone burning down the place.

 _Is this place really that safe?_ I worried to myself.

After breakfast, Ms. Van Dop pulled me aside and handed over my chore list as well as a general schedule for what went on around the house.

"Your classes won't be ready for you until Friday, which will give you a couple days break from academics. However, we still expect you to remain active and complete the chores on the list. The ones up top need to be done daily, while the ones on the bottom are weekly. Feel free to do it more often, if you find yourself bored. You may also ask the nurses for any additional jobs."

Normally, I would have declined doing extra work, but seeing as though I probably needed to get on everyone's good side to get out of here, I mentally prepared myself to fill every moment of my time here helping out where I could. I just wanted to go back home.

Nodding and turning away, I made my way up the stairs only to bump into Tori.

"Sor-" I started, but she quickly interrupted.

"Watch it kid." She snapped, pushing my shoulder. I had to grab the handrail in order to keep myself from falling.

"I-I'm not a k-kid." I said, slightly annoyed. Of all the times for my stutter to come out…

"Ble-ble-ble That's all folks!" She said mockingly, getting close to my face. "What are you, special? Take the small bus to school, there kiddo?" My face flushed red as she pushed passed me, continuing her way downstairs.

I stood there for a few seconds, taking deep breaths. After calming down a bit, I made my way to the bathroom, getting started on the list of chores. Better to do them now while everyone was in class, where they couldn't bother me for today.

It was around four p.m. when Mrs. Talbot called me over to the kitchen to help peel potatoes for tonight's meal. The kitchen was nice, more elbow room than most, and the dining room could easily be seen. I stayed near the sink while peeling, forgetting the feeling of bandages still wrapped around my hands. I was looking around and noticing different alarms set up by the windows and the back door near the dining room.

 _Makes sense, don't want to run the risk of us children escaping._ I thought to myself, turning back to peeling. I still couldn't shake the feeling of paranoia. I felt as if someone was breathing down my neck. I peeked behind me and saw nothing, however I heard some rattling behind the closed door of the pantry. Curious, and a little bit frightened, I wandered over to the door and was just about to pull it open when it decided to open by itself…

Straight into my nose.

I gasped and stumbled back, pulling my hands to my face.

"Shit! I'm so sorry! I didn't know you were there!" Hands made their way into my view, most likely to pull them away to see the damage, but I flinched and pulled them out of his reach.

"N-no worries, I shouldn't have been so close to the door." I said, looking up. I was met with a smile from a strange boy. Living boy, judging by the racket he was making in the pantry and the soreness of my face. He looked to be my age, with almond-shaped eyes and strange enough, blond hair. It didn't look bad though, it was strangely attractive.

"What a way to make an introduction huh? The name's Simon, you must be -" He stopped talking and listened for a moment. A couple of nurses seemed to be talking in the hallway behind the kitchen. His eyes flashed above me and then back to me.

"I'll be back, I have to go distract the nurses. Don't want to get caught snatching food!" He gave a quick wave and rounded the corner, running into one of the nurses and starting a conversation. Giving a little smile, I turned around and came eye to eye - well, more like eye - to chest- with another person. Backpedaling as fast as I could and squeaking out my surprise, I looked up to see a man… a boy?.. Looking at me blankly. He was a giant, standing at _at least_ 6 feet, probably more. His clothes were baggy, and he looked stocky, acne angrily covering his face. Poor guy. His eyes were a sharp green, though, and quite beautiful.

We stared at each other for a few seconds. He didn't make a sound, his chest rising and falling slightly, but I couldn't hear any breathing. Was he a ghost? Surely Simon would have pointed him out before? I took a deep breath and straightened myself out. Looking around quickly and seeing no one, I gathered up my courage and walked forward. He watched me, scowling slightly as I got closer. When I was within arm's reach, I slowly lifted up my hand and gave a small poke at his stomach.

Solid, definitely solid. Not a ghost.

I looked up to see surprise and what I could only guess as curiosity dance in his eyes, even as he glared down at me. I immediately turned red and jumped back.

"S-s-sorry, I-I-I w-was just ch-checking.." I stuttered, trying to come up with an excuse that didn't sound completely crazy.

"Checking what?" He said shortly, turning his back towards me as he reached to grab an apple out of the basket. His voice was super deep, not sounding like a teenager at all. It was strange, besides him talking, I still heard no sound from him, even as he walked past me to the pantry. It honestly freaked me out. Could he be like the Thing? But he looked more human…

I looked behind me to see him grabbing a few snacks and still looking at me, expecting an answer. Just as I opened my mouth, Simon came back.

"Alright! Coast is clear! But not for long!" Simon looked between me and the boy (?). "I see you've met my brother! Chloe, this is Derek." I gave a huge breath of relief at the realization that this Derek person wasn't like the Thing. I looked back to Derek again to see that he just looked all the more curious.

"Nice to meet you." I said, giving a small smile to both of them. Simon just looked to me for a second, looking a little concerned.

"So what happened to your hands?" He gestured toward the bandages. _Shoot,_ I thought to myself, how do I explain that a creepy monster at school decided to test his nail strength on me?

"W-well I-I-I.."

"Slow down and think before speaking." Derek snapped impatiently. I quickly looked up and glared at him, feeling my eyebrow twitch. I hated it enough when I got told to slow down from adults, it felt even worse getting told the same thing by him.

"Derek…" Simon said quietly. I quickly turned back to peeling potatoes. "It was nice meeting you." I said shortly. "You should leave before the nurses come back." I heard Simon shuffle behind me, giving me a quick pat on the back.

"We'll see you around, maybe when Derek isn't feeling so grumpy." He laughed quickly and made his way out of the kitchen. I didn't hear Derek leave, but I assumed he left with his brother. Thinking about it now, though, they didn't exactly look to be related.

I shrugged to myself and continued working, muttering to myself quietly about how much Derek was a "big bully" and how it's "not my fault he moves like a freakin' ghost."

As I continued, I swore I heard a quiet rumble of what I could only guess as a chuckle leaving the kitchen.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Hello! Here's the next chapter! Enjoy reading! I'll try and keep up the postings for chapters, I know how painful it is to wait for stories, so I'll try not to make it so painful XD.**

 **This chapter is a little longer than most, just as a warning!**

 **Disclaimer: All of the characters are owned by a Ms. Kelley Armstrong**

Dinner was a quiet affair. Tori had decided not to stay for long, saying that she'd rather skip dinner than eat with the likes of us. Liz had chattered for a few minutes, Simon joining in here and there, asking me questions about what school I was at and what my favorite subjects were, but soon gave up as soon as they realized that I wouldn't give them too much to work with. They instead turned to each other, Rae speaking up here and there to contribute. Derek never said a word, hardly looking up from the plate of food in front of him. I watched in quiet amazement as he managed to eat a family meal in under five minutes. He caught my gaze when he finished and scowled slightly. I flushed at getting caught, and looked down to eat my own food, before getting up and rinsing my dishes in the sink. I made my way to the stairs when Liz stopped me.

"Hey, some of us are going to be playing some games. Would you like to join?" She said, still smiling kindly. Liz was sweet. Throughout the day she would stop by wherever I was to check in with me, making sure my first day went well. I was really glad that she was my roommate rather than Tori. Rae had seemed cool so far, but I had hardly spoke to her yet.

Right as I was about to consider it, a flash of a shadow passed across the walls. I looked behind me real quick to see if anyone was behind us, but no one was there. I felt a slight chill down my spine. Looking back to Liz, I plastered on a quick smile and took a long calm breath.

"S-sorry, I think I'll skip for tonight. I'm just a bit tired. Thanks for the invite though." I said. She nodded in understanding.

"You must be really tired. It can be hard adjusting sometimes. My nana said that I've never had the same issue, she always called me her little battery. I hope you get some rest! I'll probably be up in an hour or two. The nurses don't like us staying up too late. Says rest is one of the major keys to healing."

After leaving Liz with the others, I made my way to the girls' hall and into my room, throwing myself onto the bed. Absentmindedly, I played with the bandages around my hands. Mrs. Talbot had replaced the bandages after I had peeled the potatoes, clucking her tongue.

" _Such a shame to scar such beautiful hands…" I had looked down, wincing at how torn and mangled they had looked. Not deep enough for stitches, but certainly deep enough to scar._

" _How long will I need to keep the bandages on?" I asked quietly, still staring at my hands._

" _The doctors say for a couple more days, just to make sure that they don't reopen. I still say that they should've used stitches, but sadly I wasn't there to add my two cents." I smiled softly at her._

" _How long have you been a nurse here?" I asked. My aunt had been a nurse since I'd been born, swearing even then to protect me with all she had._

 _Her face suddenly fell, her face and eyes suddenly showing her true age. She looked up at me, finishing with the bandages._

" _Too long, dear. Way too long"_

I sighed and turned in my bed. This place was strange, but I guess it fit. A strange place for strange children. Rubbing my eyes, I grunted in frustration. I hated to admit it, but I was nervous. This whole situation made me nervous. I tried so hard not to be put in a place for troubled children. Now here I was, trying my best to blend in and act normal. I had done it for most of my life, so how come it was getting so hard to do it now?

I woke up late that night, uncomfortable from sleeping in my jeans. Liz was already asleep in bed, snoring quietly with her sheets all tangled around her and the pillow, again, on the floor. I stifled a giggle as I quietly stood up and changed into my pj's. I walked into the hallway and to the bathroom to quickly brush my teeth and use the restroom. As I was washing my hands, a soft chill brushed past me.

"Girl…" It was so soft, so quiet that I barely heard it. I shut off the water and sighed quietly, looking at myself tiredly in the mirror.

"You hear….. I know….. Please…." I shook my head.

"I-I can't. I can't help you. I'm not able to leave to do what you want me to do."

"No, don't…. Not yet… basement…. Stories…." That piqued my interest. What was so important in the basement that this ghost couldn't move on?

"Here?" I asked quietly. But all of a sudden the feeling of the ghost was gone, and my body unconsciously relaxed. I shook my head and turned off the lights, heading back to my room. I settled into bed and closed my eyes. Maybe I was just more tired than I realized. Wouldn't be the first time I dreamed up a ghost.

The next morning at breakfast I was informed that I would have my first therapy session with Dr. Gill, and that after the meeting I would be given my first dose of prescription medication. The thought made me a little uneasy. The medication may work on someone who needed it, but I was healthy, so who knew what kind of effects it would have on me. I prefered being fully in control of my thoughts and actions, thank you.

After rinsing my plate and wishing Liz and the rest good luck on their classes, I made my way to the door. I knocked first, only opening the door when I heard a quiet "come in". The room was a little narrow, with a desk set in the center. In front, a couple comfy chairs sat, while behind the desk was two filing cabinets and a woman in a desk chair, typing away on a laptop. She was long and skinny, her hair pulled up in a bun and her glasses frames thin. She almost looked like a scarecrow. She looked up slightly from her screen, giving a small smile.

"You must be Ms. Chloe Saunders. Please," she gestured toward the comfy chairs, "take a seat. Make yourself comfortable." I nodded and did as she said. As soon as I sat, I felt as if the couch swallowed me, the seat melting down low and my legs barely touching the ground. I put my arms on the sides and tried to pull myself up a bit.

She shut the laptop and turned around to the filing cabinet, pulling out a file, before turning back and setting it down on the desk. Pulling out a piece of paper and a pen, she looked back up.

"I'm Dr. Gill, I'm sure you heard from the nurses that I'm the group's psychologist. I see everyone here, including - now - you. So please, don't be afraid to talk about anything that comes to mind. I'm here to help. Think of me as your diary. Anything you say to me will be kept completely quiet. The only things I'm required to report is any hostile behavior toward yourself or toward others." I nodded and hooked my hands together, looking at my twiddling thumbs. I had been through all of this before, when Mom died, so I wasn't unfamiliar.

She looked at me for a second, then continued. "How do you feel, coming to the Lyle House? Have you been adjusting adequately?"

I nodded. "Everyone seems… nice." I said quietly, deciding to participate a little. How could I convince them that I'm okay, if I don't even talk to them? "Liz has been very helpful. She's been checking in on me to make sure I'm okay."

She smiled. "Liz is certainly one of a kind. How about the others?"

"Simon and Rae seem nice too. The others I haven't really talked to. I haven't met Peter yet." I decided to skip over my… interesting encounter with Tori. I didn't want to step on any toes by already narking people out.

"That's good that you're getting along. Peter has been showing great progress, so he was sent home for a couple days, to see how well he adjusts back to normal life. If all goes well, he'll be able to graduate from here." She jotted down a couple things, then opened the file. "Let's start getting into the heart of things. It says here that during your third period, you had "started to shake, stood up abruptly, scraping your wrists and hands on a stray nail on your desk, then proceeded to run screaming down the hall, jumping out of a second story window." She looked back up at me, closing the file and folding her hands in front of her. "I've heard the onlookers versions' of this tale, but I haven't heard yours. Would you mind telling me what really happened?"

 _What really happened._ I almost laughed. If only she could see what I could. I wouldn't be the only one sitting in therapy.

I quit that thought and took a deep breath. The best way to get out of therapy was to admit that you had a problem. So, telling the truth in the beginning was the best way to handle this. Then, after a few appointments and a few days of "taking" my medication, I would act like everything was getting better, and be sent home free. Hopefully.

"I-I was having a good day. My dad had told me that he had taken some time off for me." I stopped and slouched back into the chair. I felt my heart sink as I remembered. My dad had finally made time for me, and this is how we spent it. Apart, with me being put in a crazy home where he wasn't allowed to see me until I got better.

 _I'm so sorry, Dad._

"I understand that your dad was gone often. Did you ever get lonely?"

"Yes." I answered simply.

"Did you ever hate him for it?"

I shook my head. "No, he's only supporting me the only way he knows how. I could never hate him."

"That's very mature of you, Chloe. Not a lot of teenagers feel the same way." I thanked her and waited for her next question.

She wrote something down quickly and looked back up. "I know that the next few questions will be tough, so just say when you want to stop, alright?" I nodded, and she continued. "What happened during third period, Chloe? Your teacher mentioned that before what was reported, you had run to the bathroom, looking sick."

I nodded again. "I had just started my period. When I got back, I wasn't feeling much better, but figured it was due to that."

She nodded for me to continue.

"A-At first, I just saw black ooze dripping from the ceiling. I thought it might have been just a leak, but then it got underneath the teacher's shoes. I knew something was weird when she didn't say anything about it. I was about to say something when I h-h-heard something i-in the ceiling t-tiles."

I felt myself shaking slightly, reliving the memories. Dr. Gil looked up from her notes. "You heard this thing?"

I froze. _I had._ I had heard it moving. The thumping of it crawling across towards me. I _had_ heard this thing's footsteps.

My mental red alarm started to go off. _Not good. Not good. Not good._

"Y-y-yeah. I-I could e-even h-h-hear the d-dr-drops." Her eyes widened slightly as she scribbled down more. My shaking worsened.

 _If I can hear this thing and the dripping, how will I be able to tell the rest apart from the living?_

"Chloe…? Chloe! Breath." I snapped my head up to her, and realized that my hands had gripped the edges of the chair for dear life. I was shaking badly.

"Chloe, I want you to breath in for five, then exhale for ten." She stood up and walked over to me, kneeling down and putting one of her hands on top of mine. I flinched for a second before relaxing a little. She started counting, motioning for me to breath in, then back out. Once I had started to calm down, she moved back to her seat, scribbling for a second before looking back again to me.

"Do you want to stop?" I thought for a second.

"N-no. Best to get it all out now." She gave another smile. "A big part of healing is learning how to talk about it. You're doing really well. You can continue whenever you wish, I have the whole day cleared for you."

I nodded, then, after a couple minutes, continued.

"Something had crawled out of the ceiling tile. Something… disgusting. It s-saw me and fell in front of me, crawling onto m-my desk."

"What did this thing look like, Chloe?"

"I-i-t was tall, skinny. Nothing but bones. I-it's skin was spread thin over it, and it's neck was too long. T-that thing had no n-nose o-or mouth. Just b-black for eyes, with wh-white lights in the center. T-t-t-the sk-sk-skin had r-r-ripped o-opened when it s-s-smiled." I shook my head quickly to try and get the image out of my head, trying instead to focus on Dr. Gil scribbling frantically on the paper. She seemed to circle something multiple times before looking back at me.

"Did it do anything, Chloe? Did it say anything?"

I nodded. "I-i-it said i-it could see me n-now."

At the end of the meeting, Dr. Gil had said that my diagnosis currently was mild schizophrenia. Mild, because I hadn't experienced anything before. She handed me a sheet of paper, describing the medication that she would be putting me on. The nurses were supposed to give it to me twice a day, once in the morning and once at night. As she walked me out of the office, I looked over to see what she had circled multiple times. I was able to barely make it out.

 _Shadow Person_

I quickly turned my head back to Dr. Gil as she started speaking. "I'm going to request that we meet three times a week, if that's okay with you? I know you haven't started your classes, so we will discuss later whether or not you need more time for homework and chores." I nodded and turned to her.

"Thanks for listening, Dr. Gill. It does help to have someone listen and not automatically call you crazy." She nodded and smiled.

"We all have something about ourselves that we think is crazy, but it's never as crazy as it seems. It can all be traced down to nutrition, personal experiences, and chemical makeups in the brain. Not so crazy when put like that, is it?"

I smiled and nodded, saying goodbye and turning to the kitchen for lunch. She had a point. It really didn't sound so crazy when it was put that way.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Another chapter! I would like to thank you, bibliophile102, for writing that amazing comment :D! I** **couldn't keep the grin off of my face all day, and got to brag to my friend that I actually** ** _am_** **a decent writer XD But seriously, once I read your comment, it made me immediately want to write more. So thanks for motivating me, I'll work hard to make you and others happy and proud!**

 **Disclaimer: The characters are owned by a Ms. Kelley Armstrong.**

True to their word, Mrs. Talbot gave me the medication right after lunch. I stared at the two small blue pills in my hand before shutting my eyes tightly and throwing the medication in. I made the motions of swallowing, then opened my mouth to show her. She smiled.

"You don't have to do that with me, Miss Chloe. I know how much you want to get better. " With that, she turned to put the medication away and lock the cabinet, filled with medication for the others. As soon as she turned away, I spat back out the medication that was hiding underneath my tongue, throwing it into the nearest trash can.

"Better not let the nurses catch you doing that." Chirped a voice behind me. I jumped a few feet in the air and spun. The nearest trash can had just happened to be in the kitchen, where apparently another food raid was happening. Simon stood there with a smile as usual, with his shadow closely behind. I could feel my face pale quickly as I looked between them.

"I-i-it's n-n-not..."

"Save it." Rumbled Derek, cutting me off once again. I would be angry if the circumstances weren't so dire. They could turn me in, I would be forced to take this strange medication, the nurses would keep an even closer eye on me.

I looked up to see his irritation, as well as wariness.

To be honest, I guess I would be scared too, if I knew the local schizo didn't take her medication.

 _Stop it._ I told myself. _They don't exactly know why you're in here._

 _Besides, Derek should be the least concerned. He could just pick you up and throw you out the closest window._

What a great way for the heroin to go out. With a bang...from hitting her head on the cement.

My eyes snapped back to Simon as he started speaking.

"What Derek is _trying_ to say is that we're not snitches. Your secret is safe with us. I usually hate taking my medication too."

Now _I_ was concerned. What wasn't he taking that he was supposed to? He wouldn't go crazy and stab me in my sleep, would he? He _seemed_ like a nice enough guy.

"T-Thanks..." I muttered quietly, taking a step back and looking between the two of them. I looked up at Derek and matched his wary stare. Was he not taking his meds too? He didn't seem too hostile, just anti-social. And would he keep my disposal a secret? I doubt Simon would give me up, based on what he just told me, but Derek...

I quietly prayed that Tori didn't have the same habit. I'd rather not end up dead in a ditch.

I looked away as Derek's gaze got particularly cold.

Derek pushed past his brother, his arms filled with food. He grunted something about going back up to the room. My eyes followed him as Simon just shrugged and looked back at me.

"Sorry, he's not the most social. Never has been."

"Didn't we just eat lunch?" I murmured, my eyes only looking back after he left my view.

"I don't know if you've noticed, but Derek eats more than your average bear. So," he said, pausing for a second, "how did your therapy session go?" He asked, motioning to the dining room to take a seat. He took his and looked at me expectantly. I hesitated, looking between the chair and the exiting hallway, before sighing in resignation and going to sit by him.

"It was fine. Typical, really." I said shrugging, playing with my hands. Socializing a little couldn't hurt too much. Might as well get on his good side too, just in case his decision of not taking meds turned out bad for me. I decided turning the conversation back to him before he could ask anything else.

"How about you? Like your therapy sessions?" I asked, turning my heads toward him, laying back in my seat. If he was anything like Liz, I figured I should get comfortable.

He smiled and shook his head. "I don't get therapy. Not troubled enough to get them, I suppose," he sighed dramatically. "Life's so unfair."

I laughed a little. "You must feel so left out. Can't imagine how bad that feels."

He placed his hand above his heart. "It hurts me, it really does." We both laughed for a second.

"So why are you here then? If you don't mind that I ask." He shook his head.

"I can't answer that unless you _promise_ to answer one of my questions." I hesitated. He caught my look and spoke quickly.

"Nothing too personal, I promise." I looked at him and nodded.

"Alright, but you have to answer first."

He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms, thinking for a second. He looked back at me when he spoke.

"Derek and I got caught in the same situation, so we got sent to the same place. My jail sentence is just a bit different from Derek's."

I nodded. By his vagueness, I could tell that it definitely wasn't a fun situation. I considered asking more about this so-called "situation", but thought better. I had been unwilling to share my story, so why ask him theirs? Besides, I wasn't here to make friends, as harsh as that sounded. I was here to convince everyone that I was just fine, then return to Dad and Aunt Lauren.

A thought occurred to me then. It would be nice returning to family, sure. But what about school? I never really liked being the center of school drama, but after screaming and jumping out of a window, I was sure that my face would be more recognizable. I didn't even want to think about the rumors that were surely spreading. I sighed slightly. Maybe Dad would let me transfer schools, or -even better- become home-schooled.

"So that means Derek gets therapy?" I asked. He put his finger up and shook it. "Nuh-uh. Now you get to answer my question." He said, a foxy grin spreading across his face.

I almost instantly regretted my decision. "Shoot." I said simply. He nodded and thought for another moment, while I studied the bandages on my hands.

They had some blood on them, showing that they were struggling to heal, but nothing too major. Looked more like the amount of blood a paper cut would give.

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" He asked simply. My head snapped back up to him, and I couldn't help the relieved smile cross my face.

"Of all the questions you could ask, you ask that?" He nodded, then motioned for me to answer.

"I want to be a director." Well, more than just a director. Being the screenwriter too would be a major accomplishment. I would have zero regrets if I died hunched over planning the newest blockbuster.

"That's pretty interesting! Not your run-of-the-mill 'astronaut' or 'police woman' answer. What made you-"

"Siimmooonnnn!" A voice sang from around the corner. All of a sudden Tori stepped out and began to say something when she stopped dead and took in the situation. Her eyes landed on me and glared hatefully, before turning her eyes back to Simon, smiling again.

"I've been looking for you! Up for a game of basketball? You know I'm always itching to get some outside time from these lame-ass people." Her eyes flashed to me quickly before going back to her main interest.

Aw, I was her favorite. So sweet.

"I'm in the middle of something, Tori." Simon said politely. "If you really want to, you could join our conversation?" Simon asked. From the tone of his voice, it sounded as if he was really hoping for her to decline the offer.

Sensing the icy hate from Tori, I stood up. "Actually, I think I hear my chores calling my name. Talk to you guys later." I sent a small smile towards both Simon and Tori - only getting one of them returned - before I made my way to the hallway door, grabbing a broom and walking upstairs. I didn't want to get involved in any of that.

Now, I wasn't running with my tail between my legs, even if Tori may have seen it that way. I just wanted to get out of here without any more scars and bruises. I was being smart.

I made sure to keep myself busy until dinner, even going out of my way to ask Miss Van Dop if she needed any help. I was then stuck with the task of cleaning the boys' bathroom, which I immediately was not a fan of.

 _Apparently_ someone had been slacking in their cleaning duties. And I had a sneaking suspicion it wasn't Derek. As little as I knew about him, he seemed the type to just quickly get his chores over with, probably so that he wouldn't have to deal with the berating of the nurses.

Dust bunnies littered the floor, as well as evidence that someone wasn't good at some midnight shooting. I shuddered. My bathroom was always clean at home, with me only using it and with the nanny cleaning it once or twice a week. I never had to worry about my dad's bathroom, and I figured the nanny didn't really have to either. He wasn't home enough to get it dirty.

It was when I was scrubbing the floor with the bristle broom (muttering dark curses under my breath at Simon) that I felt that chill again. I stopped and looked out in the hallway before closing the door. If a ghost were to show itself, I wouldn't want anyone seeing me.

"H-hello?" I stuttered out quietly. I was rewarded with an answer a moment later.

"Girl... please... basement..."

Turns out this ghost wasn't just a dream.

And apparently had a thing for bathrooms and basements.

"What's in the basement?" I asked quietly, continuing my work. I was almost finished.

"D... Door... Go... Door... Stories..."

"A door?" I asked quietly, more to myself. I quickly dried the floor with the mop I had later grabbed, cleaning up the extra water and dirt that the bristle broom had brought out. I hadn't really been in the basement yet. The basement was where you did laundry, and it was Rae's week. I had only seen the basement when Liz showed me it during my tour. Tomorrow started my week. I didn't recall seeing a door down there. And what was this about stories?

The door opened, interrupting my thoughts and making me squeak out in surprise.

Who would open the door to the bathroom like that without knocking?

My answer was answered instantly as I saw who it was.

His eyebrow twitched in irritation as he moved to rub his ear.

Maybe, _just maybe_ , if he made noise like a _normal_ living thing, I wouldn't be so inclined to screech at him every time.

"S-Sorry, I-I was just finishing -" He raised his hand to cut me off.

"Who were you talking to?" He demanded, leveling me with another glare and crossing his arms, leaning against the door.

"I-I-I don't kn-know..."

"Slow down, and don't lie." He snipped. "I could hear you."

I straightened up and narrowed my eyes. I still looked like a child, especially compared to him, but I wasn't going to not stand my ground.

"Is this how you get your kicks? Cornering girls in the bathroom? Blocking their way out?" I snapped. His eyes narrowed.

"Don't change the subject." He growled out.

"The subject of you hovering outside the door while I was in the bathroom? Not to mention that you didn't even knock. Now if you'll please move, I need to put these supplies away." I picked up the broom and stepped closer, he didn't budge. My annoyance grew.

Now, it probably wasn't the best idea to egg on the giant who was put into a group home, but I wasn't going to show him that I was easy bait. I decided to switch my tactic a little.

I smiled kindly up at him. "I'm sorry, did I stutter this time? I thought I made it clear that I want you to move."

His eyes widened slightly, and I caught that curious look again before he schooled his features into a blank scowl.

He moved and left, making his way to his room. I walked out into the hallway, watching the door close before I made my way back downstairs, letting out a breath of relief. I smiled, slightly proud of myself.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Hello! Here's another chapter. A little shorter than usual, but certainly gets certain points across! Hope you enjoy! And never be afraid to comment! We all help each other grow!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, a Miss Kelley Armstrong does.**

Dinner, sadly, wasn't as quiet as it was my first night. It started out promising, with Liz chattering to Tori about the ridiculousness of classes, and the rest of us eating. Well, Derek wasn't really eating. More like shoveling.

"So, Chloe, I was interrupted earlier and never got the chance to ask. Why do you want to be a director?" Simon asked nicely. Liz turned her head toward our conversation.

"A director? That sounds pretty cool!" She smiled my way, encouraging me to speak. I took a deep breath as I put down my fork.

"Well-"

"I hope you'll direct horror films. I'm sure the things you see would be perfect for it." Tori cut in, mockingly cheerful. My head snapped in her direction. My eyes widening.

She now had the entire table's attention, even Derek's.

She met everyone's eyes, hers lingering on Simon's for a second longer than necessary. "Oh! You guys didn't hear?"

"Tori – please -" I pleaded quietly. She looked me straight in the eye and smiled.

"Chloe sees ghosts and monsters. You know, the usual hallucinations of a _schizo_." She sneered the last word. My breath quickened slightly as all eyes turned to me.

"Apparently, she ran out screaming and jumping out a second story window. Not before she slit her wrists, though."

The bandages suddenly felt heavy on my hands, and I quickly dropped them underneath the table, wishing the eyes would turn away. How did she know? Hadn't everything been kept quiet?

I knew I wasn't crazy, I knew I wasn't schizophrenic. I wasn't depressed enough to slit my wrists. But the sting was still there. The knowledge that I would be shunned for being crazy, for having no one believe me.

I looked up slightly, accidentally meeting Derek's gaze in front of me. He had put down his fork, and was looking at me intently.

Simon spoke up after a minute of deafening silence. "Tori, you shouldn't -"

"What? Reveal the danger we're near? What if she freaks out on one of us? What if the monster she's sees attacking is just herself?"

"Tori!" Liz yelled. Tori started sputtering toward her friend.

"All I meant was – What I'm trying to say-" I stopped listening.

 _Monster._ That was a new one, but not completely incorrect.

I absently noticed Derek's gaze harden to a glare and slide towards Tori.

"Tori," his voice rumbled. Everyone stopped talking. "Stop trying to look good in front of Simon. You're further proving that you're a shallow idiot."

It was so silent that we could here Miss Van Dop typing in her office upstairs.

He scooped up more food and continued shoveling what was left, as if nothing had happened.

The rest of the table, however, would strongly disagree. I think that was the most I've ever heard him talk. It wasn't much, but still...

While Rae's, Liz's, and Simon's mouth looked like a gaping fish. Tori had turned a bright red and settled her glare on Derek, but didn't say anything more.

After pulling my eyes away from him. I turned my gaze toward my bandages. Maybe I deserved to get hurt. Maybe this shadow creature was my punishment for ignoring so many desperate pleas.

Physically, I had never hurt anyone. But that didn't mean that I wasn't a monster.

I pushed my plate toward Derek. He looked up at me, his face blank.

"I'm not so hungry anymore." I muttered. I put my hands on the table and pushed myself up, walking out of the now-quiet dining area and upstairs to Liz's and my room.

After changing into my pajamas, I laid back on the bed and started staring at my hands again. According to Mrs. Talbot, I should be able to take off the bandages tomorrow, but I was hesitant. There had been a little bit of blood today, so the scabbing had to be delicate. Although, considering that I would start my classes tomorrow, my hands wouldn't be put through the torture of cleaning. Giving the scabs some air might be for the best.

I frowned slightly. The thought of taking off my bandages gave me a sick feeling in my stomach. Now that everybody knew where the injuries had _supposedly_ come from, I wasn't so open to the idea of taking the bandages off. I knew that the cuts had been ugly, and anyone who would see them would be horrified. Horrified and disgusted. If I could do this to myself, what would I do to them?

I slept uneasily that night. Tossing and turning, dreaming of the ghosts that I had turned away, of the sobs and pleas that would follow me down the halls of my school. I woke up gasping after a particular nasty dream of the Thing, feeling sick to my stomach. I pushed my covers off of the bed and ran down the hall to the bathroom, puking my guts out. I felt a gentle hand pull my hair back, and I jumped slightly, but didn't get a chance to look at who it was before another wave hit me and I gagged out what was supposedly my dinner.

Hopefully the ghost was nice.

As soon as I had finished, a copper colored hand reached over and cleaned off the access saliva with a wipe.

"Looks like you caught a nasty." Rae said quietly, throwing the wipe into the toilet and flushing it. She let go of my hair and helped me stand up.

"T-thanks," I said quietly. "Did I wake you?" Rae snorted. "No, not at all. I just happened to be downstairs sneaking rice crispies when I heard someone running down the hall. Figured I should check and make sure you were alright." She reached into her bra and pulled out a small package. "Want one?"

I took one look and turned back to the toilet, my stomach hating me for even _thinking_ about taking a bite.

I heard some rustling and a quick apology. "My bad, I'll refrain from showing you what else I snuck." She pulled my hair back again, waiting until I was finished before reaching and grabbing another wipe. She handed it over and let go of my hair. I took it and began cleaning back up.

"Thanks, again." I said quietly. I got up slowly and went to the sink, grabbing my toothbrush. I heard the flush of the toilet behind me.

"It's not a problem. I'm pretty used to barf. The smaller kids at home can get sick pretty easy." I hummed in acknowledgment, my mouth filled with toothpaste.

She stood up and walked behind me. "You may want to change your bandages though, your projected a bit." I looked down at my hands and grimaced. Gross. I rinsed out my mouth and put down the toothbrush, reaching into the cupboard below the sink.

"Here, I'll help. You're not in the best of shape, so your bandages won't be tight enough." I looked at her for a second in surprise, before handing her the rolls.

"Y-you sure? They aren't pretty." She scoffed.

"I don't exactly look like the Prissy Queen Victoria, do I?"

"Victoria?" I asked, slightly confused.

"Tori. It's her full name. She hates it, so I make it a point to call her it every chance I get. We don't exactly get along."

"I see." I said simply. We both sat across the floor as she unwrapped my bandages. She winced slightly as she got a full look at them.

I couldn't blame her. They almost looked _worse_ than earlier today. Definitely wasn't going to take the bandages off tomorrow. Or... today? I had no idea what time it was.

"Whatever happened, it wasn't pretty, was it?" Rae asked quietly, wrapping them gently, but still firmly. I looked up and locked eyes with hers, before looking down, watching her continue. It was nice, having someone not assume the truth.

"No... it really wasn't."

Rae had walked me back to my room, and to my surprise, Liz had opened the door right as I reached for the handle.

"Chloe, you alright?" She asked, concerned. "I heard you throwing up, but when I came in, Rae said she had it handled."

My eyes widened a bit. I didn't even realize she was awake, let alone checking up on me in the bathroom. I must've really been out of it.

"I-I'm fine. Must've caught something." I whispered.

Rae nodded. "Yeah, it wasn't pretty. You'd be glad I sent you back, Liz, if you saw it." I blushed as Liz gave a small laugh.

"Thanks Rae, I owe you one. I'll take you from here, Chloe." Liz put her hand on the small of my back, ignoring my slight jump and guided me back into the bedroom.

"I'll see you two tomorrow. Get some rest! I'll be enjoying my treats, sure you guys don't want any?" Both of us shook our heads, and after a quick thank you from both of us, Liz closed the door as Rae walked back to her room.

Liz turned to me and made me sit on the bed. She put her hand on my head. "You're temperature is a little warm, but not fever-worthy." She sighed dramatically. "I can't keep you home, looks like you'll still have to go to school tomorrow."

I matched her smile, then faked a pout. "But moooommmm..." I whined quietly. We laughed for a second, me ignoring the soft ping in my chest whenever I said that word.

"No buts! Now get some rest! Don't want to be tired on your first day." She gave a quick wink as she pushed my shoulders down, forcing me to lie down. Once I pulled the covers over me, she gave a quick nod of approval before going back to her bed.

"Goodnight, Chloe."

I closed my eyes, smiling slightly. "Night, Liz."

I guess making friends would be inevitable.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Hello! I'm** **soo** **sorry it's taken so long to update! I had some important stuff going on! But here's the next chapter! I'll be able to write more soon, I promise!**

 **Disclaimer: The characters belong to a Ms. Kelley Armstrong!**

To my surprise, it was Ms. Van Dop who looked at the bandages the following morning.

It was before breakfast, Liz was in the bathroom getting ready when the nurse came and knocked on the door. She gave me a long look before she had started doing my bandages, but didn't say anything. It was only when she had unwrapped the bandages that she started to talk.

"We're going to take the bandages off for a few hours today, to let it breath. But after class time, I want to put them back on. They're not looking too much better." She looked at me and thought for a moment.

"Refrain from doing any more cleaning. Laundry will be fine, but don't do any scrubbing. It may be why your hands aren't healing appropriately."

I nodded as she got up and made her way to the door. "Hurry and get ready. Breakfast will be in ten, then afterwards Liz will show you to the classroom. Don't worry about bringing any supplies, they are already provided."

"Yes Ma'am." I said quietly, getting up to round up something decent. I had showered earlier, after waking up at an unholy hour and running to the bathroom. Apparently, the bug that I had caught hadn't passed through.

I was feeling a bit better now, so I didn't really feel it necessary to tell the nurses.

After I was dressed, I took a look in the small mirror placed by our door. I could understand why Miss Van Dop had looked at me weirdly.

I was even paler than usual, my face looking a bit thin. Dark circles had appeared, and my eyes seemed a little dull. I almost looked like the ghosts that stalked me.

I sighed tiredly. Times like these made me wish that I had taken an interest in wearing and carrying makeup. It would be so easy to cover the dark circles, to make me look not so sickly. I combed through my hair with my fingers, then moved to pinch my cheeks, trying to get some color back in them. It worked a little bit, and I gave a small smile to myself before heading down to the kitchen.

Downstairs, mostly everybody had taken their seats and had started eating. Liz was still upstairs, finishing up, while Tori was taking her medicine with Mrs. Talbot. I took a deep breath and stepped in behind her, waiting my turn. I kept my hands behind me, covered by the long sleeves of my shirt. Tori was the last person I wanted seeing.

As soon as she finished taking her meds, she turned sharply and walked to the dining room table, ignoring my presence completely. I breathed a sigh of relief as I gave a small smile to Mrs. Talbot. She smiled back and turned to grab my medication.

"Good morning! How'd you sleep dear?"

"F-Fine," I lied quietly. "How about you?" She turned and smiled at me, holding out the pills for me to take. I reached out and grabbed them, throwing them in my mouth and faking a swallow.

"Oh, I slept wonderfully! Working so much has made it so much easier to sleep." I nodded and started to head toward breakfast, stopping by the trashcan to quickly spit out the medication before taking my usual seat at the table. Liz appeared a few minutes later, skipping over for her medication, then returned shortly to sit with the rest of us.

Breakfast was a quiet and quick affair. Everyone seemed too preoccupied with their food to start up a conversation. I pushed my food around, the smell making me a little nauseous. I knew that I was hungry, but just imagining myself eating it... I stabbed a piece of waffle and shut my eyes, quickly swallowing. Starving myself wouldn't make me better, choking down what I could could only help.

Or come back up for me to later taste again.

After taking about three or four bites, I gave up and pushed my food to Derek again. He looked up at me for a second before moving the food from mine onto his. Simon caught the action and elbowed his brother.

"Hey." He said to him quietly before looking at me. "You aren't hungry? You barely ate last night."

I shrugged. "I don't usually eat breakfast, anyway." I said, getting up. "Besides, I should probably head to class early. Mrs. Abdo probably wants to go over a few things with me."

He frowned, but nodded. "Alright. Here, I'll go with you, I'm about done eating anyway." He picked up my and his dishes and ran them over to the kitchen before making his way back to me to lead me to the classroom.

I sneaked a quick look to Tori, and was not surprised at the look I received. It was like _I_ was the one who told him to come with me. Her fist was clenched tightly around her fork, and her glare was colder than the current storm outside. I looked back at Simon when he pulled me towards the class, slight fear prickling through me. I tried to pull away from his grip on my sleeve, but he was being stubborn. I let it be for the time being.

He opened the door to the classroom, leading me in. Mrs. Abdo looked up from her computer and looked between me and Simon.

"Good morning, you're both early."

"Chloe figured she should be here early, since she's new." He said, smiling his charming grin towards her. She gave a small smile back.

"Very smart of her." She looked to me. "It's nice of you to be here. Now, usually I just give the assignments that you're missing out on at your schools. If you're struggling with anything, you can ask someone near you, or you can ask me. Think of it as just a "catch-up" period. I'll be sending the papers to your teachers to grade, or if they are easy enough to grade, I'll do it and return it to you in the morning." I nodded and she motioned to one of the front row seats.

I sat down, looking around the room. There were only enough desks for every kid here, no more no less. The desks were separated into three rows, none within arms reach. I figured that she didn't like too much talking in the classroom.

Mrs. Abdo pulled open a drawer from her desk and pulled out a folder filled with papers. She got up and plopped them on my desk, as well as a calculator, a couple sheets of extra paper, and a pen and pencil.

"Most of the supplies are in the back of the room, labeled. The pencil sharpener is to your left, next to the window. If you need anything extra, just let me know and I'll see what I can do. Class ends when it's time for lunch. Anything that you can't get done today that is due tomorrow will be homework. Inside the folder you'll find a timeline. This timeline was created by your teachers, and shows when each assignment is due. Make sure to follow this timeline, I heard your school doesn't accept late assignments." I nodded again and mumbled a thanks, before opening the folder to take a look at the behemoth of homework left for me.

My teachers certainly weren't taking it easy on me. For the few days that I've been gone, each class seemed to have assigned five different assignments. I sighed and looked at the timeline. Luckily, only about a quarter of the assignments were due tomorrow, while the rest were due next Monday and Tuesday. Simon had sat next to me, whistling at the amount of homework on my desk. I looked up and he gave a smile.

"Don't worry, all the new people here have a ton of homework to do at first, it'll get better. I promise."

I gave a small smile back. "You don't happen to be a whiz at math, do you?" I looked back down and pulled out my homework for Algebra 2. I held up the sheet of paper and waved it. "I have a feeling that a majority of this folder is just that." He quickly shook his head and raised his hands.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not willing to sacrifice my sanity for you just yet. Math drives me crazy, hate the subject. I'm more of an... artistic spirit." I scoffed and put the paper back down. "You know," he started, "Derek is a genius when it comes to that, and he owes you now." I looked at him, confused.

"Owes me?" Simon's grin got wide.

"You've given him your meal twice, I think that's the best kind of payment for Derek." I gave a small laugh at that.

"I somehow don't doubt that. I'll think about it."

After our little chat, I got to work, skipping math for the time being and focusing on the other subjects that were due tomorrow. It wasn't anything too difficult, especially after Mrs. Abdo showed me where the computers were located and how I could access the necessary textbooks. I got a couple assignments done before the rest came in, grabbing a folder similar to mine from the nurse and taking their seats. I didn't miss the kick to the shin as Tori walked past me to sit in the chair behind me. I held in the moan of pain and just squeezed my pencil tighter, keeping my head down and working.

However, I had to quickly stop squeezing as I realized that I had reopened a small part of my wound on my hand. I pulled my sleeve back a bit and pressed my right hand on my thigh, careful not to get the small amount of blood anywhere on my assignments.

I wonder what my teachers would think, getting an assignment covered in blood. Maybe they would take one look at it and decide just to give me a B-, not wanting to grade bloody homework.

I looked to my right and saw that Rae had taken the spot next to me. She felt me looking and met my eyes, giving a small smile.

"Feeling alright there, girly?" She asked quietly, her voice carrying more than I would have liked in such a quiet room.

I nodded. "Yeah, fantastic." I murmured, gesturing toward my homework. She winced.

"I feel you. My first day was pretty bad too." We gave quick smiles and went back to work, feeling the gaze of Mrs. Abdo.

The rest of class was quiet, and I kept my head down and my mind on homework, trying not to think about what happened the last time I was in a classroom. I could feel eyes on my back, but figured that it was just Tori staring me down, trying to see if it was possible to kill someone with a hard enough look. After about ten minutes of this, I turned my head slightly to see that it wasn't Tori that was staring.

I met Derek's gaze and quickly looked away, blushing. I shifted in my seat, slightly uncomfortable. I never liked people looking at me. Some girls appreciated the attention, but I could hardly stand it. I always felt that if someone stared hard enough, they could see that I wasn't like them. That there was something wrong with me.

The rest of the class went like that. I would focus on my homework, and every now and then, I would feel that gaze on me.

 _Maybe I just happen to be sitting where his eyes usually zone out?_ I thought hopefully. I hadn't done anything to really piss him off, have I? I mean, sure, I may have been a bit of a jerk when he cornered me in the bathroom, but who corners people in the bathroom, anyway? It wasn't my fault he was being creepy.

After feeling his gaze for about the tenth time, I turned and slightly glared at him, mentally telling him to stop. He met my gaze with a blank stare, motioned toward my work, then to the vacant seat next to him. I looked at him confused. He sighed and rolled his eyes. He bent his head for a second, writing something on a blank piece of paper, before holding it up for me to read.

 _You need help with math._ He then pointed to the seat next to him.

I looked at him, a bit surprised, before gathering my things to go sit by him. He moved the desk closer to his, and motioned for me to sit when I came by. Mrs. Abdo gave us a quick look, then after figuring out I was asking for help, went back to whatever she was doing.

We were in the back of the class, far enough that if we kept quiet, the others would struggle a bit with listening in. Everyone's back was to us, all hunched over with whatever they were working on.

As soon as I sat down, Derek took the few assignments that I had finished and gave them a quick look over before scribbling down a few formulas. He continued to look through them as I watched him quietly. Why would he help me? From what I gathered, he wasn't exactly the most social. So him offering to help wasn't what I'd expected. Besides how did he even know I needed help? There wasn't enough time for Simon to tell him that I needed it.

His voice snapped me back from my thoughts.

"You were close, but you messed up the formulas on 4, 9, and 11. Same with the third page, except with numbers 8, 9, 10, and 13." I looked at the pages, seeing the neat script written by each problem.

"Are those the only ones you needed done today?" I nodded. He looked back to his own work and started, signaling the end of our conversation. I placed the papers down and fixed up the problems. It only took a few minutes, seeing as though I had the processes written right in front of me. As soon as I was finished, I erased his writing and stacked the papers next to my folder, keeping the completed work separated from the unfinished. I looked at the clock and saw that we only had about ten minutes before class ended. Everyone else was either rushing to finish the work or goofing off. Simon in particular was doodling on the end of his paper, while Rae had her head on the desk. Liz and Tori were talking quietly to each other, as usual.

I looked back at Derek to see him still working. His hair was slightly covering his face, shiny because of how greasy it was. It was kind of gross, but I couldn't really blame him. Puberty could be cruel. I had a friend who showered every day, but by around dinner, her hair would already be greasy again. His face was a bit flushed, his acne showing a bit more than usual. He wasn't absolutely hideous, though. His chin was strong, and even with the layers on you could tell that his shoulders were broad. He was chubby, sure, but he wasn't large. Besides, his eyes were a really pretty green….

"If you've finished your math, you should work on your other assignments." He rumbled, meeting my eyes. I blushed at getting caught.

"Cl-class is about over. I don't want to start an assignment and not finish." He shrugged and slid his homework back into his folder, cleaning up around his desk. I swallowed and gathered my courage before talking.

"How did you know that I needed help with math." He stopped and slid his gaze back, before sighing and sliding back into the chair, crossing his arms.

"You were sitting and not writing anything, just staring at your homework."

"Is that why you were staring?" I asked. He shrugged.

"Part of it." He motioned to my hands before talking again. "There's something wrong."

"What? No way! I had no idea! How did this happen?" I snarked. He glared at me, and I huffed and looked away, crossing my arms and hiding my hands from his view.

"I mean, those aren't self-inflicted wounds. Even if you caught your skin on a loose nail or window, it wouldn't cause that kind of damage." I snapped my head back to him and stared.

"W-What makes you so sure?"

"I'm not stupid. Your wrist wounds go up from the middle to the top of your palms, on both hands. Seems unlikely you'd be able to do that to both hands. It would be too painful to grip the blade to do the second one. They're also too deep for a nail."

I stared at him, wide-eyed. This boy was too smart. Smarter than the teachers and the doctors that had seen these.

Just then, Mrs. Abdo dismissed class for lunch. Derek stood up and looked down at me, I looked back, refusing to back down. I faced ghosts scarier than he was, I wouldn't let him scare me off with just a look. His eyes narrowed before widening slightly.

"You already know what you are, don't you?"

My heart quickened its pace, and I felt my breath hitch for a second. He couldn't possibly mean… no. It wasn't possible.

"What do you-" I was cut off as Simon jumped into the picture.

"Yo! Ready for lunch? I heard that it's tuna sandwiches today…."


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Hello! Here's another chapter for everyone! Thank you so much for those of you have been reading and/ or reviewing! I really appreciate it! I hope you enjoy! Please don't be afraid to comment and criticize! Need all the help I can get!**

 **Disclaimer: The characters belong to a Ms. Kelley Armstrong!**

After class, instead of heading straight to lunch, I instead headed up to Ms. Van Dop. She had insisted that morning that I would have my bandages replaced after class. I had knocked on her door, and without saying a word, she pulled it open and dragged me in, sitting me down and getting to work.

It was quiet for the five minutes she put them on, her just doing her job and me watching quietly. I still felt a little nauseous, and the short discussion with Derek wasn't helping at all. What did he know? What did I already know? He couldn't possibly think that I could see ghosts, could he? No one believes that, not really. Sure people will humor a good story or two from others, but they wouldn't believe you if you just started talking to yourself in the middle of a line. No, instead they would just ship you off to a house similar to this one or worse. They didn't automatically assume that you talk to dead people.

So he probably didn't know. He probably was just referring to something else. But what if he did know? What if he knew the truth? What if I had someone who believed me? Who took me seriously?

It made me feel… hopeful, yet, it also made me terrified. To confide and trust someone that much, when they could destroy you with a single sentence, with a single word.

 _Schizo._

I shook my head. No, he wouldn't know. I needed to stop thinking about such things. It would only be painful if I were to get my hopes up.

I looked up to Ms. Van Dop as she finished the rest of the bandaging, checking to make sure it was tight enough.

"Your wounds still look raw. You most likely won't be able to take off your bandages for another day or two. I do, however, want you to air them out more often. During your classes and during dinner, I want you to take them off, then re-wrap them. Do you understand?"

I nodded, pulling my hands away and starting to get up. She stood up with me. "I believe you're aware that it's your week to do laundry. You may want to get started today. I suggest doing one or two people a day, that way you're not doing too much or too little."

"Thanks, I will." I said quietly. We walked to the door and she pulled it open for me. Before I took off down the hallway, she stopped me for a second more.

"I almost forgot to mention. Your aunt has been insisting to check up on you. We've allowed a visit. She will be here tomorrow before lunch to pick you up."

I smiled happily. "Really? Is my dad going to be there?" Ms. Van Dop's frown deepened.

"That isn't my business. I've told you what I know." With that, she shut the door and went back to work. I shrugged and happily went down stairs, ignoring how sick I felt. It would be nice to see my Aunt Lauren after everything. Maybe I could prove to her and my dad that I was getting better, and they could put in a good word to the nurses.

By the time I had gotten down to the dining room, mostly everyone had already finished and was headed to do either their chores, homework, or whatever else. Derek was the only one left at the table, sitting quietly and writing something down, while occasionally shoving a few bites of food in. As soon as I had gotten my food, I swallowed and sat down across from him, instantly nervous.

He didn't look up, just continued on writing, his brows scrunched and his eyes narrowed, trying to work out whatever was in front of him.

I took small bites of my food, trying to swallow without barfing everything back up. Food still tasted horrible. Everything tasted like sand. Even the strawberries, which were a personal favorite, tasted more rotten than anything. After only taking a few bites of my meal - again- I shoved the plate to Derek.

This time, however, he shoved it back, putting his pencil down and looking up at me.

"Why haven't you been eating." He asked, although, it sounded more like a demand.

I shrugged, trying to look casual. "I haven't been hungry." I said quietly. I went to stand up, but he reached over and placed his hand on my shoulder. I flinched slightly as he roughly pushed me down. I gasped a bit, but didn't move. His grip wasn't hard, but it was stern enough to make me feel like I was in trouble.

"Stay." He demanded. He pulled back and folded the paper he was writing on, putting it into his pocket along with his pen.

"I'm not a dog." I grumbled, crossing my arms. I didn't move though, getting the hint. He wanted to talk, and honestly, I had a few questions of my own.

He glared at me for a second. "Eat."

"Why? So I can barf it all up again?" I snapped.

His face went blank. "So you've been sick?"

I blushed and looked away. I didn't want him, or anyone else knowing about it, but it looks like I was failing at keeping things a secret anymore. First Rae and Liz, now Derek.

"Probably just a stomach bug." I mumbled quietly. I turned back to him. "Why do you suddenly care, anyway? You were more than happy to take my food this morning."

He shrugged. "Simon told me not to take your food anymore unless you ate a good amount first."

That explained a bit. Simon seemed to care more about others than his brother. Speaking of which…

"You two don't look related." I stated.

He gestured his fork to himself. "Adopted." he took another bite and looked at me, seeming to debate for a second before speaking.

"Are you familiar with the word 'Necromancer'?"

I looked at him curiously. He wanted to talk to me about vocabulary?

"Ne-necromancer?" I said, trying out the word. He grunted, which I took for a yes. "No, can't say I have. Why?"

He motioned to my plate. "Take two bites. I'll continue." I glared, but couldn't honestly be mad. I figured it was kind of sweet, in a weird, deal-making, antisocial way. Guess when I felt nicer, I would have to thank Simon for looking out for me.

I sighed, and quickly took my two bites, swallowing and shutting my eyes, fighting off my nausea. I motioned for him to go. I heard him put his fork down.

"How long have you been seeing ghosts, Chloe." He rumbled. Again, a demand.

I snapped my eyes open and stared. He sat perfectly still, his eyes glaring into mine. There was no humor, no weariness, just… curiosity. Guarded curiosity.

I felt my palms start to sweat. Was this a trick? A dream?

"I-I-I d-don't s-see ghosts." I stuttered out. He sighed angrily and pushed his food tray to the side, leaning forward towards me.

"I told you before. Don't lie." I leaned back a bit, desperate for some distance. He didn't budge, his eyes never leaving mine.

"How long."

"H-how do you know I'm not just a schizophrenic?" He leaned back slightly at that. He opened his mouth but was quickly interrupted.

"Derek! You said we would talk together! As in, all three of us!" Simon said, exasperated. He walked in from the kitchen and took a seat at the end of the table, with Derek to his right and me to his left.

"S-S-Simon?" I said, jumping slightly. What was going on? I looked between the two of them, confused. Simon had a slight tension in his shoulders, but continued smiling at me and Derek. Derek straightened up and mumbled something under his breath. Simon shrugged and looked back to me.

"This is going to sound.. Weird. But you're not the only one with strange… abilities." He said, rubbing the back of his head. I looked wide eyed at the two of them, before laughing slightly. They both looked at me, surprised.

"What is this? A superhero movie? Is this the part where you take me back to meet the rest of the X-Men?" I shook my head. Derek looked confused, while Simon was attempting to sputter something out.

"Listen. I know there's something wrong with me, no need for you two to tease me about it." I said, getting up. Again, Derek pushed me back down. I barely had time to yelp before his hand was instantly off. I stared at him, a little scared. He had just gripped my shoulder for a second, but I could already feel a bruise starting to form.

"Sorry." He muttered, avoiding my eyes. Simon jumped in.

"Look, do you want proof?"

I shifted my gaze towards him. "Proof of what?" I asked quietly, my hand on my shoulder. These guys were crazy. Sure, they may have acted nice, and it would've been nice for someone to know about me, but they were just crazy. Crazy kids in a crazy house.

"Proof that you're not the only different one." He said, determined. I looked up and met his gaze. For the first time, there wasn't any humor. He looked serious. I moved my gaze to Derek, who now had his hands under the table, looking away from the two of us. He almost looked ashamed.

Could it hurt to hear them out? Besides, I was kind of being held against my will. Might as well get it over with.

"Fine. Prove it."

Simon gave a big smile before running into the kitchen and grabbing a spatula.

Crazy. Definitely crazy.

He sat back down and reached his hand out, placing the spatula in the middle of his upturned palm.

"Derek?" He asked, giving him a quick look. Derek tilted his head a bit before nodding toward Simon, his eyes darting around the house.

"Cool! Now Chloe, watch closely." I nodded and moved my eyes toward his palm. I heard him mumble something, then after a second, curse.

"Damnit. Here…" He muttered the words louder this time. They didn't sound like English, or any other language that I was familiar with.

All of a sudden, the spatula raised about two inches.

I looked between the spatula and Simon, my mouth gaping open. "W-wait… this has to be.."

"A trick? Go ahead, movie girl. Stick your hand underneath and feel for strings." I quickly reached out and felt below and above the spatula. Nothing. It was really floating.

As I wiggled my fingers around underneath, Simon grabbed my hand and held it, letting the spatula fall. I jumped a bit in surprise.

"See? All real!" He said, smiling.

I was pretty sure my eyes would be permanently wide after this. I kept staring at the spatula. Sure, I'd seen tricks on T.V., but this was different. There were no magnets, no strings, Simon had a short-sleeved shirt on… I couldn't think of how else he would do it. I looked to Derek, but his gaze was averted, glaring at something in the corner of the room. I looked back to Simon and slid my hand out of his.

"W-what are y-you?" I asked quietly. Looking between the two of them. Was it just Simon? Or was it both of them. My gaze lingered on Derek a second longer. He had shifted, looking uncomfortable, before looking back up at me.

He raised a hand to stop Simon from answering.

"How about we make a deal. We tell you what you want to know, and you tell us what we want to know."

I hesitated for a second, then agreed. They might have answers, heck, maybe they may know what attacked me in my classroom.

"We'll have to continue this conversation later." Derek said, getting up from his chair. He ran his hands through his hair real quick before continuing. "Ask the nurses to go outside around four. We'll be out there." I nodded and started to get up before Derek stopped me… again.

"Wait." He demanded, not touching me this time. He went to the kitchen and opened the freezer. I didn't see what he had in his hand until he put it on the table. As soon as he did, he turned and left, heading upstairs.

My eyes followed him until he was out of sight before looking down to see a bag of frozen peas. I looked at Simon.

He gave a small smile. "I'm guessing it's for your shoulder. He pushed on it, remember?" My eyes widened in surprise.

"Oh.." I looked down at my shoulder, lifting my sleeve up a bit. Sure enough, the area was red and sore. I let my sleeve drop and put the ice pack on the area. I looked back up at Simon, seeing his face pale a bit.

"Is.." he cleared his throat. "Is it bad?"

I shook my head. "No. It's a little red, but I bruise pretty easily. It's not even that sore." Simon looked a bit relieved.

"Listen, don't be so scared of him, okay? He really doesn't mean it. It's not his fault." he said in a bit of a rush. "He just can't control his strength all the time. He tries really hard to, but sometimes he slips.."

"His strength?" I asked, cutting him off from his rambling. He nodded, getting up to stand with me. "Yeah… part of his… condition."

"What are you two?" I whispered. He gave a small grin. "Derek said we'll talk later. You have laundry, right? I have to finish a few assignments before I get started on chores. So we'll all talk together later." With that, he patted my good shoulder and walked off, following his brother.

I gave a sigh and, after putting the ice pack back in the freezer, made my way downstairs to start the laundry.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Hello again! Working hard for you guys to make up for the past break and maybe even any future breaks! Enjoy the new chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: The characters are owned by a Ms. Kelley Armstrong!**

The basement was about the size of the living room, the floor being covered in tiles with the washer and dryer against the wall to the left of the bottom of the stairs. Cheap wallpaper decorated the nearly empty basement, and, instead of it helping the room look friendly, just made it all the more creepy.

Although, that may have been my biased opinion. I never was one for basements.

I looked around slowly, knowing that the ghost from the bathroom had finally gotten his wish. I had finally come to the basement, so where was the door?

I didn't see the door right away, but I did notice the three tubs of laundry waiting for me by the washer, each bin representing each person. I sighed and walked over, opening one of the washers and starting to shove the laundry in.

After I had put in the soap and started the washer, a cold breeze blew past my neck. I quickly turned and looked around, the hairs on my arms and neck standing on end. The ghost was here.

"Giiiirrrrllll…. Door…. Stairs….." I jumped slightly at the voice, but quickly schooled myself before walking near the stairs.

"It's by the stairs?" I whispered.

"Under…"

Under the stairs. I walked past the stairway and looked to the dark opening underneath. I got on my hands and knees and moved closer. The lighting wasn't so great, but I was able to make out a small outline with a small handle.

"Huh, what do you know." I mumbled. The door was small, only standing about four feet tall and three feet wide. Dust had covered it completely, changing the original blue to a washed out version of the color. A lock was placed on the handle, keeping anyone from going in.

"Inside… stories…"

I got up and brushed myself off. "I can't. It's locked. I'll have to look for the…" My voice drifted off as I heard another voice, faint but present. I looked around. Just me, nothing else.

"W-was that you?" I asked the first ghost.

"No… other… story." I thought for a second, before sitting down and closing my eyes.

From what I've gathered from movies and personal experience (seeing if the movies were right with how someone summoned ghosts - for the most part, they were), sitting in a quiet room was the first step. Next, the person just had to concentrate on pulling the ghost through, then pop! The ghost would be there. Now, movies had, of course, exaggerated with cool effects and everything, but really the whole process was just some person sitting with their eyes closed in a room. It was kind of lame, though I was thankful I didn't have to read from some book of the dead or gather herbs from around the world.

"Good… pull…" I nodded, and began focusing on the faint voice that I had earlier. The ghost was being stubborn, but I continued, only kicking my power up a little. I had never tried it on full throttle, and wasn't interested in experimenting too much. Ghosts were enough to deal with when I _didn't_ summon them.

As I kept pulling, the voice got louder. "Wait…. I think I got it." I told the first one. I decided to give one more pull. I shut my eyes tighter and gave a final tug.

Suddenly, I felt as if I was falling quickly. I struggled to open my eyes, but couldn't. My body was frozen, and I struggled to breath. I felt myself slipping.

 _Leather straps circled around my hands, ankles, and around my waist and forehead. I couldn't move. The air was stale and dry, smelling of rust. The light above me was bright, shining directly into my eyes._

 _I heard the door screech open, signaling his return. I started to struggle against the bindings. I needed to get out of here._

 _The light was pushed out of my eyes to reveal a shadowed face. I blinked hard, trying to get my eyes to quickly adjust._

" _I see that you've awakened. How pleasant. The others have stopped waking up, so I just have you as company." I could see his figure turn away._

 _I felt the tears run down my face. I was next. I tried so hard to be safe from these experiments, only to end up next in line._

 _The man returned, holding something large in his hand. "Now, my little witch, let's see if there are any differences between a human brain and a witch's' brain." I heard the start of a drill as I screamed and begged. I knew that no one could hear me. No one but me heard the others plead for their lives. And now no one but me would hear mine._

 _I felt the sharp pain of the saw digging through my skin and begin cutting through my skull._

 _No supernatural would ever be safe. Not from Lyle, not from experimentation, not from anything._

I gasped as I opened my eyes, taking in the basement around me. Once realizing that I wasn't bound by anything, I quickly rolled onto my hands and knees and heaved, everything leaving my stomach at once.

I sobbed and gagged, begging for the man to stop.

I must've stayed like that for a while, trying to catch my brain up to where I was currently. I moved away from the pile of vomit from the floor and cautiously took in my surroundings. The terrible wall paper, the floors, the light, the washer machines. I was finally able to piece together that I was back in the basement, doing laundry. I raised a shaky, bandaged hand to feel my head, making sure that I wasn't actually drilled into, and breathed an unsteady sigh of relief as my hand came back down blood-free.

What _was_ that?! That was too clear to be a dream. The last thing I was doing was drawing out that voice….

"Girl….. Sorry…. Didn't know…" I jumped slightly, but calmed down and started to get back up.

"I-I d-d-d-on't wa-ant to t-t-talk r-r-right n-now." I stuttered out, trying to calm my crying. I looked back to the vomit next to me and sighed, getting up and wiping my tears. I needed to clean this up before anyone noticed. I shakily made my way upstairs and to the cleaning closet, grabbing the cleaning supplies and going back down.

As soon as I had finished cleaning, I quickly made my way upstairs and, after asking the nurses, outside. The fresh air felt wonderful, and I tried to inhale as much as I could.

The smells and the feel of that room were still stuck on my skin and in my chest, making it hard to breath in there.

I walked over to one of the benches sitting by the slab of cement and the basketball hoop and sat down, staring out past the fence. The quiet was refreshing, and I shut my eyes to enjoy the cool weather.

I didn't know how long I was out there for, but I didn't care. I felt calm, I felt peaceful. I didn't even jump as I heard a pair of footsteps approach.

I didn't open my eyes until I felt someone sit next to me, seeing both Derek and Simon staring at me. Derek's glare cold and calculating, while Simon's, next to me, was surprised.

"Chloe, are you okay?" I took another deep breath before nodding, my gaze sliding to meet Derek's for a second before looking back to Simon and giving a smile.

"Fine." I said, my voice raspy. I could feel Derek's cold gaze on me, already knowing that he didn't believe me. "Is it already time?"

"How long have-" Simon was cut off by Derek.

"Does this have anything to do with the smell of barf coming from the laundry room?" Derek said coolly, sitting down on the grass in front of us.

I swallowed and pulled my hair behind my ear. "A bit." I said honestly. "I got sick again." I wasn't technically lying.

I felt… uncomfortable. Simon was too nice, I didn't want him worrying over me. I would feel guilty burdening him with my problems. They weren't his to deal with.

While Derek wasn't as nice as his brother (far from it), I didn't want to tell him either. They weren't his either.

Derek's eyes narrowed, but let it slide as he continued on with what we had planned on talking about earlier.

"How long have you been able to see ghosts?" I shifted in my seat and brought up my knees, hugging them closer to me. Simon scooted closer, offering his support. I gave him a small smile, but pushed myself a little bit away, discreetly enough to where I hoped he didn't notice.

"As long as I can remember. I knew I wasn't crazy when I found out that the people I was seeing actually existed."

"How did you figure it out?" Simon asked, curious.

I winced a little before replaying the memory. It wasn't as painful as it used to be, but I figured that I was still feeling a bit numb from the earlier encounter. "I was visiting my mom's grave with my dad. A lady was giving her condolences, and told me her name. While we walked out, a burial was taking place. Someone had dropped the casket, and the crate had opened. It was the same lady."

There was a bit of a silence as the words sunk in. I looked up to see Derek pulling at the grass, thinking.

"So, you think I'm a ne-necromancer?" I said, a little self-conscious.

"Weird word, right? But yeah, Derek and I know you are. Necromancers are known to be able to see and summon ghosts."

Derek squinted at the ground. "Yeah, though from what I've heard, they usually don't see their first ghost until they've hit puberty."

"Maybe you read it wrong." Simon added in, cheerfully.

Derek grunted. "Unlikely."

I saw Simon roll his eyes at this. He sent a smile my way. "Derek hates to admit when he's wrong." Simon got a good glare for that one.

I cleared my throat and spoke. "What are you guys?"

Simon jumped up and took a bow in front of me, taking my hand.

"Let me introduce myself. I am the great! The handsome! Wizard!" I laughed a little at his antics and pulled my hand away as he strutted proudly over to Derek and sat next to him, nugging him and telling him to loosen up. Derek muttered something about not being too loud.

"A wizard? Where's your magic wand?" Derek gave a scoff at this and Simon's ego visibly depleted.

"I wish I was as powerful as Harry Potter, but real magic doesn't work that way. You have to learn all of these incantations that are in greek and latin, then you have to work on focusing your energy… I'm okay, but Dad's way better."

"So your dad's a wizard?"

Derek grunted. "Most supernaturals get their powers from their family. It's mostly hereditary."

I nodded, wondering where I got mine from. I was sure my parents didn't have something like that. Even my aunt didn't have anything like that. Maybe grandparents?

"Okay. What about you?" I said looking at Derek. He hesitated before looking up at me.

"I'm not ready to disclose that." I frowned, but didn't press it. Simon, it seemed, wasn't agreeable with the answer either.

"Wait, that's not fair. Let's at least give her a few hints." Derek growled slightly, but didn't argue further.

"Fine." he snapped. "As you've noticed, I'm stronger than most. My hearing is above average as well as my sight. That's all I'm giving you."

"Good Derek." Simon said, patting his shoulder. Derek looked ready to pummel him.

"So… there are necromancers, wizards, and Derek. What else is there? And how many necromancers are there?"

The thought of talking to someone who could see what I saw made me excited. Maybe they had ways to stop seeing. Maybe they had come across the Thing, and knew how to deal with it.

"There are witches, which are similar to wizards but have a different type of magic. There are also shamans, who are extraordinary healers and can have out-of-body experiences. Demi-demons are also a thing, but they're hard to separate into categories. There are too many types." Simon shrugged.

I nodded slowly, trying to digest all the information given to me.

"Supernaturals together are a very small community, and you're ten times more likely to run into an Albino than another necromancer." Derek stated.

I felt my shoulders fall a bit at that. "So… that's all? I'm not going to run into any werewolves or vampires, am I?" I asked, trying weakly for a joke. Simon let out a chuckle as he met Derek's gaze before looking back at me.

"That would be pretty interesting."

Derek's rumble came in quickly after that.

"There's one thing I don't understand." He said, looking at me. "What exactly happened at your school?" His eyes darted to my hands then back to my eyes, waiting for an answer.

"Oh yeah! You've been seeing ghosts for a while now! What would scare you so badly?" Simon piped up.

I shut my eyes tightly, before telling them the whole story quickly, leaving out the more personal parts and starting just straight at the ooze. When I finished, I looked up to see Simon's face pale, and Derek's blank.

"You had to see something like that?" Simon asked quietly.

I smiled at him. "It's okay. It was only that one time. I'm pretty sure that I won't see any anytime soon, as long as I don't go back there." I was touched that he was worried, but it only proved further that I didn't need to tell him about what happened earlier.

Derek looked between the two of us before turning to Simon.

"Mrs. Talbot is calling for you. She's about to lecture you about your chores."

Simon huffed and started to get up. "I'll be right back, hopefully the lecture won't take too long." He grumbled something else as he made his way back to the house. I looked back at Derek, who was standing and watching his brother walk away.

"Your wrists. Let me see them." He turned back around and took the seat that Simon had vacated, sitting at the end of the bench and giving me space. I shifted my position and started to unwrap my hands, putting the discarded bandages in a pile next to me. I sighed as I looked at them.

"They've opened up again." I said quietly as I held them out. The scabs were ripped in some places, and blood was smeared a bit across my hands. Each side looked exactly alike, starting and ending at the same point.

"It's strange," Derek started, bending over to take a closer look at them. "They should be more healed than this. It looks as if you've gotten these yesterday."

I shrugged, shoving the bandages into my pockets. It was almost dinner time, I would just have to take the bandages off again anyway. I'll let them air out longer today.

"Ms. Van Dop said it may have been because I was scrubbing too much. I'm not allowed to do any scrubbing until my hands have healed more."

He continued staring at them as if they were a puzzle that he was trying to solve. After a few minutes, he backed up and grunted. I pulled my hands back and pulled my sleeves over them. His eyes followed my arms' movements before he spoke again.

"What happened in the basement? And don't bullshit this time. I could hear your crying."

I blushed and looked away, grumbling about having no privacy. Seriously, how was I supposed to get away with anything when the guy could apparently hear the whole house?

"T-there was a ghost. He wanted me to go to the door downstairs, but it was locked." I took a deep breath and looked at him before looking back toward the house, wishing for Simon to show up so I wouldn't have to go through the whole story.

I waited a couple minutes, but decided to continue when I could feel Derek's impatience prodding at me. I sighed heavily and continued.

"I heard another ghost, but it was distant. So I tried pulling on it, but something…. Strange happened." I shuddered slightly.

"I-I think it was a memory." I looked up to see Derek confused, and I would've laughed at the expression if the memory wasn't still hanging in my head.

"Memory? You mean a replay of how the ghost died?"

I looked at him curiously. How much did he know about necromancers? I'm sure that the average person, or even supernatural for that matter, didn't know about replays. I had seen some growing up, but it wasn't often. I would watch as the scene of the murder played out, only to repeat itself over and over again. It would only stop when I looked away.

"No… this was different. I was _in_ the memory. I saw everything as though I was the ghost. I-" I choked a bit before biting out "I _felt_ everything. I felt how cold the table was, how r-rough the bounds were. How t-t-the d-drill w-w-went th-through m-my -" I stopped myself and I put my head in my hands, pushing my tears back. Derek was the last person I wanted to see me cry. He would probably just mock me.

We sat there a few minutes in silence, before I decided to break it. "Is it-" I cleared my throat to try and stop the roughness of my voice. "Is it normal for this to happen?"

I turned my head slightly to see Derek staring out in front of him, his eyes narrowed. He opened his mouth, then closed it, thinking.

"I'm not Simon, I'm not going to sugar-coat things for you." He grumbled, turning to look at me.

I thought for a second before nodding at him to continue.

"I've researched as much as I can about supernaturals. Lately, I've been focused on necromancers." He said, his gaze flickering to mine before staring out ahead again. "I'm not going to say much about the creature you saw in the classroom. I think I know what it is, but I want to be sure. The visions, though… I've never heard of it. I'm almost certain that it's never been experienced before."

I sighed and laughed slightly, feeling a bit crazy. "Great, I'm the freak of freaks." He gave a bit of a grumble at that. It went quiet, and finally Simon could be seen making his way to the front door, followed by Ms. Tabolt and Ms. Gil.

A memory hit me as Derek stood up. "Wait." I said, standing with him, he turned to me, waiting.

"W-When I told Ms. Gil about the Thing, in my therapy session, there was something she wrote down in her notebook. It was circled a few times." I looked at him. "She had written down the words 'shadow person.' "

His gaze suddenly shut off, but not quick enough for me to see the quick flash of fear or the paling of his face.

"A-any idea what that m-means?" I asked quietly, afraid of his reaction.

"Yeah. If that's true, then we're not safe here. I need more time, though, to look into it."

 _Not safe here?_ I thought to myself, suddenly feeling shaky. Simon called and waved from the doorway, calling us in and saying that it was time for Derek's therapy session. I followed him inside, more questions in my head than before.


	11. Chapter 11

**Heeeeelllllllooooooooooo! I am so very, VERY sorry it has taken me so long to update! Things were crazy there for a while! But here you go! Another day another chapter! I'll try to be more current with updates, so don't hurt me! XD**

 **Disclaimer: These characters belong to the wonderful Kelley Armstrong**

Dinner came and went, Leaving after eating half of my dinner I made my way up to the shared room. Liz was still downstairs with the others, but told me that she would be up to check on me in a little while. I told her that she didn't have to worry about it, and that I was doing better.

And I was, slightly. I was able to eat at least half of my tray without feeling too sick. When I pushed the tray to Derek, he didn't grumble this time and piled the food onto his plate, inhaling the leftovers. Simon had smiled and handed me an extra water bottle, my "reward" he called it. Rae had told me to make sure that I drank all of the water, saying that I was most likely dehydrated.

Tori was… strangely silent, just picking at her food here and there and muttering responses back toward Liz. I was beginning to wonder if she had caught the stomach bug as well. Even Simon ventured to ask her a question or two. She had answered, of course, using the sickly sweet voice she always did toward him, but there wasn't much else to it.

I closed the door behind me and went to my bed, grabbing the bandages that I had placed on the nightstand earlier. I began to wrap my hands, thinking back to all that had happened today.

It had been too much, in my opinion, but opinions hadn't stopped life from happening before.

My emotions were running wild. I was torn between being relieved and happy, but there was fear there too. A lot of fear. I wasn't ready for this kind of new world, where wizard and witches and shamans were real. If I hadn't been a so-called "supernatural" myself, I would have laughed at the ridiculousness of it all.

And that memory from earlier… that never happened before. Granted, I never pulled on a ghost that hard... Maybe that was what happened when I pushed too hard? I would feel the memory of the ghost I was focusing on?

I tucked the end of the bandages in and placed both hands down on my lap, staring at them.

Something was tugging at the back of my mind. I felt like I was forgetting something.

I huffed as I laid down, turning on my side and calling it a day. I'm sure that whatever it is, I would remember it in the morning.

I woke up feeling nauseous, but didn't have to rush to the bathroom. Definitely some progress. I looked over to Liz to see her sprawled out as usual on her bed, snoring away. Smiling at her and at the lack of puke, I took it as a sign of a good day and grabbed my things to head toward the bathroom to get ready.

I was excited. After classes my aunt Lauren was supposed to come and pick me up for lunch, and though I still wasn't sure whether or not my dad would be there, it was still nice to know that I could see family. Part of me was really hoping my dad was there, so that I could apologize for wasting our time together, but another part of me was hoping otherwise. I loved my dad, which was why I wouldn't blame him for not coming. My aunt wasn't the easiest person to deal with.

After finishing my shower, I stepped out into the mirror to take a quick glance at myself. I was starting to regain some of my color, thank goodness, and didn't look so dead. I had lost a bit of weight, but I shrugged it off. I was already looking like a kid, so what was a few more pounds? Who needs curves? Obviously I didn't.

I sighed disappointedly as my eyes strayed to the light bruise forming on my shoulder. It wasn't too dark, but it was noticeable. It was easy to figure out that the bruise was caused by someone's grip. Pulling on my shirt, I made sure that it had covered the bruise before I walked out, turning on the bathroom fan behind me.

I was at the middle of the stairway when I heard it. Shouting. I slowly made my way down and peeked around the wall to see the door to Dr. Gil's office open. A tall woman with blond hair was standing with her back to the doorway, completely focused on who she was yelling at.

"We've discussed this before, Victoria! You _will_ behave here. I don't need to hear your whining."

"But mom, I've been _trying…"_

"Trying doesn't matter if there aren't any results." Her mom snapped. I flinched a bit. I could understand where Tori got her behavior from.

Tori's mom sighed and started to make her way out of the door and toward the front of the house. Tori stumbled after her.

"Mom, listen. I've been doing better! I have! Just ask Liz or Simon…"

Her mom whirled so fast that Tori wasn't the only one who flinched away.

"How many times have I told you to stay away from that boy?" Tori looked away, glaring at the floor and clenching and unclenching her hands.

"How. Many." Her mom demanded, getting closer to her face. I watched as Tori took a deep breath and looked back up.

"Too many, ma'am." The lines sounded rehearsed and empty, as if she spent a lifetime repeating that phrase.

"Correct, Victoria. Fail to do so, and I'll make your stay here worse than it already is." With that, her mom walked out of the front door and slammed it, not even saying a goodbye.

Before Tori could turn around, I quickly ran down stairs and turned at the other end of the hallway, meeting with Mrs. Talbot near the cupboard and making small talk- making it look like I hadn't heard a thing.

I didn't have too much to worry about though, seeing as though Tori was excused for the rest of the day. According to the nurses, Tori was to try out new medication, and needed a day or two of adjustment before she was to continue with chores and class.

It seemed like a normal occurrence, because when the announcement was made during breakfast, nobody batted an eye.

I just shrugged and attempted to eat more food than I did the night before, making a mental note to try to be more nice toward Tori. It wasn't her fault that she was raised with a woman like that.

After breakfast, we made our way to class. After grabbing my folder, I thought for a second before sitting back where I sat yesterday, next to Derek. I had more questions, and he seemed to be the guy to go to.

Rae looked at me curiously before taking the seat in front of me.

"Any particular reason for the seat change?" She asked. I smiled and shook my head.

"Nothing special. He's been helping out with my math homework." Rae looked surprised.

"Really? You must be special. He never offered to help me out." She pouted.

I laughed. "Don't feel bad, I'm sure he thinks that I'm in much more need of help than you are."

Just then, Derek walked around the corner, and, grabbing his folder, went to the seat next to me. Simon followed after, taking the seat next to Rae.

"Hey, digging the seat changes." Simon stated, looking between me and Derek. Derek just shrugged and sat down, getting started on his homework. I shrugged and mumbled something about needing help with math before Simon turned to Rae and Liz, talking about whatever game they played last night.

"So…" I started, looking toward Derek. He didn't look up from his assignment, but grunted for me to continue.

"How many uh…. Specials have you met before?" I pulled out my assignments as I asked, making sure to look like I was actually discussing assignments rather than discussing subjects that were more related to Dungeons and Dragons than real life.

"Enough." He said, not even looking up from his assignment.

I gave a small huff at his short answer and turned back to my math assignment. Using the corrected sheet from the other day as a guide, I struggled through the entire review packet. Apparently there was a math test coming up. I groaned slightly at the thought.

I sat there quietly for a few more minutes, waiting for Derek to finish his assignment before I poked at him to look over mine. With a glare, he grabbed my packet and began to look over it, making more corrections now than he did the time before. I sat there, looking around the room while I waited for him to finish. Liz was chattering happily away with Simon quietly, while Rae was preparing for another nap through the rest of class. Mrs. Abdo was sitting quietly at her computer, zoning in to whatever game she was playing. Today seemed to be an easy day for everybody.

I looked up at the clock near the door of the room. Only 15 minutes left before I could meet up with Aunt Lauren.

Just then a packet was pushed into my face, driving my thoughts back to the assignment. I grabbed the paper quickly and pulled it out of my face, giving Derek a glare.

"You know, a simple tap on the shoulder would've worked just as well." He shrugged and motioned to the paper.

"You missed a lot this time," he grunted. "Do you even pay attention in class?"

I ignored him as I glanced over my paper. Next to every wrong answer (let's be honest, next to almost all the answers), was a written explanation of what I did wrong, as well as the correct way to do it. I smiled slightly and put the packet back in my folder. It wasn't due until the test, which I assumed was the next class period on Monday. Plenty of time for me to study the answers he gave me.

"Thanks." I said quietly. He only grunted and shuffled his papers back into his folder, crossing his arms and leaning back into the chair once he was done. I sat there quietly for a minute or two, watching him, before making an attempt to talk.

"How long have you two been in here?" I asked quietly. He turned his glare from the front of the classroom towards me.

"About a month now." He answered shortly.

"Oh." I said, not wanting to push him further. To be here for that long… I was only here for a few days and was already planning on how to make my stay as short as possible.

A couple minutes later, I felt his eyes on me. I turned to meet his scowl.

"What is it?" I asked, glaring slightly back at him.

"Do you have to go back into the basement today?" He asked. I straightened a bit, but took a deep breath before relaxing.

"Not today, I think. I'm having lunch with my Aunt Lauren and possibly my dad. I don't know how long it'll take." I looked at him for a moment. "I will have to go back down tomorrow though…. Any reason why you ask?"

"Besides the obvious?" He grumbled. I narrowed my eyes again.

Did he have to be so rude all the time?

"I'm sorry, but I assumed that you were asking because you wanted something, not because you were concerned over my well-being."

His eyes snapped toward mine for a second, showing curiosity again before he turned his gaze to Simon, who was currently drooling all over his desk. I smiled a little at the sight of him.

"Simon was worried."

That made more sense. He really was a sweet guy.

"Besides…" Derek started again. "You mentioned a door. I was wondering where the key would be."


	12. Chapter 12

**Another chapter! I thought that I should add another in order to make up for time lost XD. Thanks to all of you who have reviewed so far! I really love reading the comments, makes me feel happy that I'm contributing something to this fandom. If any of you lovely people have any suggestions, please feel free to leave them! Or if you just want to say hello, that's fantastic too! Enjoy the chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: These characters belong to the lovely Kelley Armstrong**

To both my relief and displeasure, both my aunt and Dad decided to take me to lunch. Looking over the menu, I listened to the two of them bicker about the restaurant as well as other miscellaneous things. I quickly tuned them out as I picked what I wanted to eat and closed the menu, looking around the restaurant.

Restaurant wouldn't be quite the appropriate term, as the place looked more like a diner. Red thick lines lined the wall horizontally, with the booths having the same color scheme. Stools lined the counter up front for those who felt comfortable sitting that close to the waiters. The place wasn't too packed, to my relief and most likely to the relief of my Dad, who thought it would be best to talk somewhere quiet. My Aunt Lauren thought differently.

"Why did you have to pick this rusty old diner? I brought up at least three different restaurants for you and you decided to choose this? We should've taken her somewhere better."

"Now Lauren, I just thought…"

"That's your problem. A man like you shouldn't be in charge of thinking about what's best for her."

I quickly turned to my dad, cutting in before it could get any worse. "I really like it here dad, would you mind if I got a strawberry shake too?"

He gave me a grateful smile. "Of course sweetheart. My treat. I bet it'll taste better than the food you've been getting over there."

I smiled back at him and then turned to my Aunt Lauren before she could comment any further about what Dad just said.

"So how has work been? Any interesting stories?" She gave me a sweet smile and turned away from my dad, rattling on about the nightmares of working night-shift at the hospital. I listened to her telling her stories, laughing at oohing at the gossip she spilled. To be honest, I didn't really care about what others did, but listening to my aunt talk about what she loved doing was worth it. She always got so excited sharing these stories, and we often had to remind her to keep her voice down when she got too excited.

There was a break in-between her story when the waitress came up and took our orders. After she left, Aunt Lauren continued until the food came. After about five minutes of eating, my dad cleared his throat.

"Chloe, has there been any issues since you've been at the house?" His tone was suddenly serious, and even Aunt Lauren put her fork down to look at him questioningly before turning to me. I looked up from my shake in surprise.

"No, Dad. I've been doing fine. The nurses said that I've been making a lot of progress." Not exactly, but it would get my dad and Aunt Lauren to maybe start looking at ways to bring me out.

"Then how on earth did you get that bruise?" He asked seriously, reaching over to push my sleeve away from my bruise.

Aunt Lauren gave a quick gasp as I panicked slightly.

"I-it's not what you t-thi-"

"Who hurt you, Chloe? Tell us _now_." Aunt Lauren demanded. My dad sat back down and ran his hand through his hair, looking very tired.

"Please, Chloe, we just want to make sure you're safe." My dad said, looking straight at me. I swallowed as my brain worked over time.

"H-he didn't mean -"

"So it's a _he!_ There's only two boys who've been present at the clinic since you arrived. I highly doubt it's Simon. It's most likely Derek. There's something seriously disturbing about that child. First Albany now -" She stopped suddenly and shook her head. "That boy needs to be living in a psych ward."

My dad just listened as I stared at her. "A-aunt Lauren, how do you know so much about Derek?" Aren't our files supposed to be private? And what happened in Albany?

Aunt Lauren blushed before sighing and shaking her head. "I deserve to know who my niece is staying with. Being a fellow nurse allows me a little more access than most." She stared back down at me. "Don't change the subject. It was Derek, wasn't it?"

I shook my head and heaved a sigh, hoping the story I thought up would work. "N-no, Aunt Lauren. Nothing happened. I was sweeping the upstairs and didn't realize I was so close to the stairway. Derek caught me before I ended up at the bottom of the staircase. And because of that I have a bruise. And you both know how easily I bruise." I said, looking between the both of them. My dad seemed to have bought it.

"I'll have to thank him from saving my daughter from herself. But Chloe, next time tell us what happened _before_ we see the injury, that way we don't have to make assumptions and needlessly blame others." He said, pointing a look towards Aunt Lauren. She didn't look so convinced about my story, but didn't say anything further.

After finishing our meals, Dad and I walked outside and waited by the car while Aunt Lauren used the restroom. As we leaned against the car, my dad turned to me.

"I'll make sure Lauren doesn't interfere with the nurses or Derek at the home. I have a feeling that she's not through with him yet."

"Thanks dad, he really was only trying to help." I said quietly. Not a complete lie, seeing as though he was trying to make me stay so that I'd listen to his useful information.

"I'm sure he was. We saw him today while we were picking you up. He seemed pretty quiet, and a bit rude, but most teenage boys are like that. You're aunt wouldn't be familiar with that. She's just cares about you is all." I smiled at him.

"I know. Thanks for taking me out. I really liked this place."

He smiled and nodded back. "We'll have to come back sometime." He seem to think of something and began to search through his coat pocket. "I brought something for you. I finally found it hidden in the attic." He said, pulling out the mysterious object. He put it in my hands, and I had to hold back a gasp. It was beautiful. Placed on a gold chain was a small red pendant with the same color jewel in the middle.

"This was your mothers. Apparently it was passed down in the family. Your mother always wore it, as her mother did. I figured that you should have it while you're going through all this strangeness." I looked up at him, smiling and my eyes watering a bit.

"Thanks dad." I said quietly. I quickly managed to put the necklace on and placed it underneath my shirt so that the nurses wouldn't see it. I didn't think they would allow such nice jewelry at the home.

"Listen, don't tell Lauren I gave you this. She would eat me alive if she new I kept it all this time."

"I promise." I said, touching the pendant lightly. I turned when I heard footsteps coming our way, and smiled at Aunt Lauren as she unlocked the car and we piled in.

"Back to Lyle House we go." My aunt said quietly as she pulled out of the parking space. I quickly turned to her and stared at her for a second while something in my brain finally clicked.

The ghost trying show me something, the memory…..

 _Lyle._


	13. Chapter 13

**Hello again! Buh buh buh... Another one bites the dust!**

 **Disclaimer: The characters belong to a Ms. Kelley Armstrong.**

 _This couldn't be a coincidence, could it?_ I thought to myself as I paced around Liz's and I's room. _A group home named after a psycho killer?_ Just the thought of Lyle still sent shivers down my spine. I rubbed the top of my head absentmindedly as I continued to wear a hole through the floor.

As soon as my aunt and dad dropped me off, I'd smiled to the nurses quickly and muttered something about homework as I made my way to my room. The connection between my vision and my current predicament still plagued my mind. Maybe it was just a freakish coincidence? Those are known to happen every now and then. Something in my mind was telling me that it wasn't though. Especially since that person he killed was a -

I stopped in the middle of my pacing.

A witch! She was a witch! Lyle either was a lunatic or he knew about supernaturals. I was leaning more for the latter, as much as it scared me. What were the chances that this place was named after a psycho-supernatural killer? And the fact that there's currently a wizard - or sorcerer, as Simon corrected me before I left today - a necromancer, and whatever Derek was in the same building?

It couldn't be all just a coincidence.

I sighed as I attempted to run a hand through my hair, before wincing slightly. I looked down to my hand to see that part of the scab that had been broken yet again, bleeding a little on the bandages I wore to lunch. There was some dried blood already on the wrap, so I assumed that I must have broken the scab sometime during lunch.

I stared at my hands for a moment, wondering why it was taking them so long to heal. Some parts of the cuts look better, but…

I was cut off by a knock at the door.

"Come in," I said, making my way over to the little desk in the corner. I had left my homework lying there before I left for lunch, so taking advantage of that, I made sure to look like I was doing exactly as I said.

"Chloe!" Liz exclaimed as she bounced over to me. I smiled at her and turned to face her. "How was lunch?"

"It was g-good. We ate at some sort of diner, and I convinced my dad to get me a shake." I said. She laughed and sat down on her bed, twiddling her thumbs. I turned back to my homework, looking over the answers Derek had given me. After a few minutes of quiet though, I knew something may have been up. I turned to see Liz still sitting quietly on the bed.

I took a little breath and put down the packet. "Is something up, Liz? You're not usually this quiet."

She smiled. "Yeah, my nana and my brother say that they could always read me like a book. Whenever something was wrong or was on my mind, they would know because they said I was finally quiet for five minutes."

We both laughed a little at that before she continued.

"I just - I wanted to ask you something. And I know it probably won't work, but it's worth a shot."

I straightened up a bit and listened. She looked up at me, almost pleadingly.

"The reason why I'm here is because whenever I get angry or I guess upset, things get a bit crazy. Everybody says that I start throwing things, and at first I thought that maybe I didn't remember throwing things. But it's not it at all! I don't know what it is, but whenever I get upset, things go flying! Things that aren't even that close to me!" As she told me this, her voice kept rising, but she paused and took a deep breath calming back down. She looked down to the floor, wiggling her toes in her socks.

"I know I might sound crazy, but I'm already here at this house, so what's left to lose?" She looked back up. "I was wondering… well, Tori said that you can see ghosts or whatever, right? I was wondering if you could tell me if maybe there's some kind of mean ghost or poltergeist following me around?"

I looked at her in utter shock. This was not how I was expecting my day to go. At all.

I decided to ask her the same question I asked Derek a few days ago.

"W-what makes you think I can actually see ghosts? That I'm not just some sc-schizophreniac?"

She shrugged slightly. "I figured, if nobody thinks that my problem is real, then probably nobody thinks your problem is real. I know mine is, so I thought that maybe yours might be too."

I got up and sat on the floor a few feet in front of her, leaning my back against my bed. This was…. Strange. Way too strange for my liking. Way too abrupt. Last week I was just a weird girl sitting in the classroom, living through the days thinking I was just weird. Now there's a possible fourth weird person in this home? I rubbed my eyes and sighed. As excited as I was that I may not be the only one, the excitement was starting to wear me out, and I just wanted to go home.

"It's crazy, I knew it was crazy to ask! I shouldn't have said anything, I'm sorry." Liz started rambling. I tore my hands from my face and smiled at her.

"No. If you're crazy then I'm just as crazy. I'm just a little tired is all. So you want me to see if I can see anything around you?" I asked, already knowing there wasn't even a blur anywhere near her.

"Yes! Please, I would seriously owe you!" She said, bouncing slightly and smiling. I gave her a smile back and narrowed my focus around her a little, trying to see if I was missing anything.

I scanned around her for a few minutes, not even feeling the familiar chill or tug at my stomach. Shaking my head, I stopped before I concentrated too hard on my power.

"I didn't see anything." I said, a little sadly. She deflated on the bed.

"Maybe I am crazy." She said quietly.

"Liz…" I started, thinking about how Simon was able to levitate things on his own. Maybe if he was able to levitate things, it wouldn't be so weird for her to be able to throw things without knowing?

"Liz, is it possible for you to show me? Like maybe get a little angry for me, that way I can see if anything pops up?"

She looked back up at me and smiled. "You're right! Maybe this thing doesn't hang around on my shoulder all the time!" Her smile dampered a bit. "You might want to get underneath the desk or something. I don't know what it might throw, or where."

That scared me a little, but I nodded without saying anything and made my way under the desk. Once she saw that I was secure, she nodded and began thinking.

"Now… what thought will make me angry enough?" she asked herself quietly. Honestly, it surprised me that Liz could even get angry. I saw her upset at Tori, yeah, but it wasn't really angry, more of a scolding. And the fact that everyone saw her throwing things when she was…

She took slow breaths in and out, her fists clenching and unclenching. I watched as her face slowly turned red, and decided to look around the room for any movement. There was nothing so far, and I was starting to get a bit worried that Liz might actually be a bit crazy. The thought didn't sit very well with me.

It took about two minutes before I heard something rattling. I looked around the room quickly, trying to find what it was. As I looked over to my nightstand I heard a crash from behind me. Liz and I jumped and looked to find that Liz's lamp had fallen over and broke, leaving trails of glass in its wake. I quickly looked back at Liz.

No ghost. Not even a single tingle during this.

I got up from under the desk and eyed the now desecrated lamp, making sure I didn't step on any glass.

We were silent for a second before a knock on the door made us both jump. Liz gave out a breathless laugh as she went to open the door.

Mrs. Talbot walked in in a rush, eyeing us up and down.

"What happened? I heard something crash!" She caught the sight of the lamp and gasped. I raised my hands quickly.

"I-I'm s-so sorry!" I stuttered, trying to think of a quick excuse. "I t-tripped and accidentally b-bumped the dresser. The lamp m-must've been really close to the edge." Liz looked at me in amazement, breaking out into a giant smile. Mrs. Talbot just shook her head.

"Goodness gracious, Chloe! You must be more careful! Did you two step on any of the glass?" When we shook our heads, she let out a sigh. "How about you two go downstairs while I clean this up? There's some peppers that need to be cut up in the kitchen, if you two don't mind." We both nodded and walked quickly out of the room and down the stairs. Once we got into the kitchen, I checked around the area to make sure none of the nurses were within ear-shot. Liz got out the cutting board and started to cut the peppers. Finding tomatoes by the sink, I grabbed those and began cutting as well. It was quiet for a few moments while we worked, until Liz finally whispered her question.

"So? Was there anything there?" I sighed and looked over at her.

"No. No ghost." she opened her mouth to say something, but I interrupted her. "But I believe you. There was no way you could've broken that lamp from where you and I were. I just know that there wasn't anything around you." I whispered back. I looked out the window by the sink, thinking. She couldn't be a witch could she? Maybe witches didn't need to learn the words to the spell? I sighed and was about to look down when I noticed Derek and Simon walking around outside. I smiled a bit and turned back to Liz.

"I may not know what's going on, but maybe someone can help us out." I whispered. She gave me another bright grin.

It was during dinner when I finally sat alone with Derek and Simon. Tori had taken her dinner in her room, while Rae and Liz decided to play some cards upstairs in ours. I sat picking at my food as I listened to Simon talk about the different schools they had been to, something that we had in common. Because of my dad's job, we were moving constantly, and apparently Simon and Derek's dad did the same. We compared some horror stories, laughing at some of the horrible situations we had found ourselves in. Derek stayed silent, shoveling as much food as possible into his mouth. Once his plate was empty, I pushed mine over to him, giving him a small smile. He checked to make sure that at least half of it was gone before he grunted his approval and began to eat the rest.

"Y'know, Derek's going to end up owing you for life if you keep giving him your food." Simon said, nudging his brother and giving a playful smile. I gave a small laugh.

"It keeps him helping me with my math homework. You were right about food being some sort of payment."

Simon puffed up his chest. "Of course! I'm always right! No one should ever ignore my suggestions."

Derek gave a huff at that. "Like the time you decided it was a good idea to put slugs in dad's shoes?"

I choked on my water a bit as Simon pushed his brother playfully. "I seem to remember that you were the one who suggested it. I would _never_ do something so lame." He said, giving a wink in my direction. I rolled my eyes as I put my water down, knowing for a fact that Simon was the one who did it.

"Where is your dad, anyway?" I asked, curious. If he ever came to visit, I would've liked to meet him and see if he knew anything more about necromancers.

I knew almost instantly that it was the wrong question to ask. Simon and Derek both went quiet, looking at each other. After a moment, Derek grunted and got up, moving to the kitchen and grabbing an apple before sitting back down.

"Well…" Simon started, "We don't exactly know. Our dad went missing right before we were put in here. We came home from school one day to find the house empty. His wallet was still there, as well as one of his phones and the keys. Nothing was stolen either. It's weird. We've tried contacting him through email and phone, but none of it is reaching him."

I looked between the two of them, muttering my apologies for bringing up a tough subject before asking, "Do you know anybody who might know were he is?"

Simon nodded. "He had this friend a while back, a guy named Andrew. They lost contact for a while, but we're hoping that he'll know where dad might be. We can't really contact him here though. We know where he lives, just not his phone number. So we're kind of stuck here."

Derek gave him a look as he swallowed the last bite of his apple. "You mean _I'm_ stuck here. I've already told you to go."

Simon rolled his eyes. "We've already talked about this. I'm not leaving without you."

"You guys have a way out of here?" I asked, looking at them in wonder. Derek grunted his approval as Simon nodded.

"We have for a while. But I'm not leaving without Derek."

"Why are you so against leaving?" I asked, turning to him. He looked up, scowling, then gestured toward my shoulder.

"I bruised you without putting much force behind it. I'm dangerous. I stay here." He said, crossing his arms. My gaze shifted toward Simon as he sighed.

"We talk about this a lot, but he won't budge. We're in a stalemate for now."

I nodded before taking a quick breath. Deciding to change the subject, I decided that now was a good time as any to bring up Liz.

"Is it possible for a witch to move something without any sort of...incantation?" I asked, looking down at my hands before looking back up. Derek was pinning me with his gaze as Simon answered.

"Not that I heard of… But sorcerer's don't really know too much about witches. We're separate breeds, and we tend to stay away from each other. Why do you ask?"

"Well, how about lifting things? Like with your mind? Do you know what kind of person may be able to do that?"

Simon looked to Derek, as Derek looked at the table, thinking. "It may be possible for some half demons. Maybe shamans if they project out of their body." He shrugged and looked up at me, waiting for me to explain further.

I gave a quick sigh. "Liz asked me something today. She wanted to know if maybe I could see if there was a ghost following her around. She said that every time she gets frustrated or angry, things end up flying."

"Are you sure she's not just throwing things?" Derek asked.

I shook my head. "I saw it for myself. She was at one end of the bedroom, and when she made herself angry enough, the lamp from across the room fell from the stand and shattered."

"There wasn't a ghost following her?" Simon asked hesitantly.

"No, no ghost. It was her doing it, somehow."

It went silent for a few moments while we thought things over. It was Derek this time who broke the silence.

As he spoke, Derek's gaze hardened. "I don't like this." Simon nodded, agreeing.

"It was already iffy that the three of us were supernatural, but we figured that perhaps necromancers are often put into places like these. But now there's four of us?"

Derek turned to me. "Did you tell her about us?"

I shook my head. "No, just that I might know someone who knows more about this."

Derek nodded in approval. "Good. Keep it that way. Tell her we're looking into it."

I nodded. "Got it." I thought about telling them about the basement, but stopped. Simon still didn't know what actually happened down there. I would have to get Derek alone at some point.

Simon got up to stretch. "I think we should call it a night. My head hurts."

I gave a small laugh as I followed his lead, breaking the tension that had surrounded us. "You did use it more than usual today. A whole thirty minutes. Pretty impressive."

Simon acted as if he got shot. "Oh! Shot in the back by the very person I called friend!" He and I gave a laugh as Derek rolled his eyes. We made our way up the stairs and parted to our respective rooms.

When I walked in, Liz was already laying on her bed, asleep. I quietly snuck in and changed before lying down as well. My eyes were heavy, and it didn't take long for me to fall asleep. I guess the mysteries around this place would wait until morning.


	14. Chapter 14

The night passed with no problems. That morning, however, I found myself being rudely shaken awake by a very impatient Liz.

"Chloe…. Chloe! Wake up! It's morning! I want to know! I want to know everything!"

I groaned as I tried to push her off me. "What everything?" I finally freed myself from her and rubbed my eyes. I looked over and gave her a mock glare. "You should know better than to attack a schizophrenic so early in the morning." She gave a small laugh before waving her hand, dismissing the joke.

"Funny, but enough stalling! I want to know! What did your…. _Informants_ , I guess, say about me? Did they believe you?"

I looked at her for a second, trying to piece together what she was talking about, before putting my head in my hands.

"I don't know what you're talking about. What time is it?" I groaned. She stood up from my bed and threw her hands in the air.

"Chloe! The non-poltergeist poltergeist that haunts me? You said you were going to ask somebody about it? You said who knew who to talk to?"

I straightened up, snapping my gaze to her. "Oh right." I said. I got up from my bed and stretched, sighing.

Liz sighed in annoyance. "So? What did they say?"

"Well…... " I dragged out, walking over to the closet to grab some clothes. "They're not really sure. They said that they would have to do some more research before they come up with the final answer. But they believe you, Liz, we aren't imagining things." I turned and smiled at her. "We're not crazy."

Liz squealed and jumped on me, practically screaming her thanks. I couldn't help but smile. This was something that I could only ever dream about. Meeting someone that was like this, like me. Well, Liz wasn't seeing dead people, but she still was cast out because of something that wasn't considered even real. It was nice to see someone else's reaction to being told that they weren't crazy, that they weren't imagining the strangeness happening to them.

I finally pulled her away from me. "C'mon, breakfast is soon, right? We should probably head down there."

She nodded and let me go, moving away to get dressed as well.

"You know, it's kind of weird to have both of us in the same building. Do you think it's a coincidence? I mean, it definitely can be! Seeing ghosts and monsters is a common schizophrenia thing… Well, in movies anyway. I don't honestly know too much about it. And with my poltergeist - well, I guess it's not a poltergeist, I'll just call it my "strangeness"- I guess I could get labeled as temperamental and violent. What about the "someone" or "someones" you know? Do they have any powers? Ooo! Is one of them like superman? Super strength and laser eyes? That would be pretty cool, I would be pretty jealous."

I had just nodded along to most of what she was saying until the last part. I couldn't help but laugh a little as I took the wrappings off of my hands. They were finally starting to look a little better. Maybe they wouldn't crack today? I would just have to take it easy.

"Actually, yeah. One is pretty strong, apparently. I don't know about laser vision though.." Or tights, or a cape. Though picturing Derek with his usual scowl wearing and bright blue tights was definitely going to be useful. His glare wouldn't be as scary to me when I'm picturing him prancing around in a blue super suit with a cape that's too short for him.

We were heading down the stairs into the kitchen, and Liz went off to meet Tori, who was quietly sitting at the table, pushing her oatmeal around her bowl. She looked a little better than before, but I wasn't going to risk sitting next to her to see if she was.

After "taking" my medication and grabbing breakfast, I made my over to my usual spot across from Simon and Derek. Rae was over in the kitchen grabbing an orange before taking a seat between me and Liz.

"How're ya feelin', girly? You look like you're doin' better."

"Yeah, you look brighter than usual! Finally better?" Simon asked, a bright smile pointed directly at me. I blushed a little before I felt the cold glare from Tori.

I shrugged my shoulders and looked down at my breakfast, stirring it so that it could down quicker.

"I got a lot more sleep last night is all." I said quietly. I peeked over to Tori to see her glaring down at her food.

After overhearing her mother yesterday, I could understand why she acted the way she did. Her mom was a grade A bitch towards her. I don't think I would've turned out much better.

"You know," I started quietly. "It looks like Tori's doing better, too." Her glare snapped up to me, becoming more heated. I quickly turned towards Liz, hoping she could save me. "Right Liz? Simon?"

Luckily, both were able to catch on to my SOS. Liz jumped in quickly. "Oh definitely! I hate seeing you so quiet and lifeless. You definitely have your spark back today."

Simon nodded along with her. "Yeah, it's weird when you're suddenly quiet all day." Tori beamed at him and Liz.

"Well, I'm obviously better now, so I guess you all can stop worrying about me." She went back to her food, complaining about how the nurses could feed us this 'mud'. Rae let out a long sigh and turned to me.

"You're too nice. Now we'll all suffer from your "good deed"."

"Chloe's just trying to divert attention," Simon defended, giving me a smile. I smiled back, glad that he understood. "Besides what I said was true. I'd rather hear where she's at rather than get a surprise visit in the middle of the night." Rae snorted a laugh at this.

"Touche, Simon. Touche."

I rolled my eyes at the two of them and looked over at Derek, who was currently stealing the rest of his brother's oatmeal and shoveling spoonful after spoonful of brown sugar into it. I waited patiently for him to finish before I grabbed the bowl.

 _Super Derek, the man who saves lives by hogging all the sugar._ I gave a quiet snort as I dug into my breakfast, finally feeling up to eating more than just a couple spoonfuls.

The rest of breakfast went by uneventfully, with Simon talking enough for the rest of us. I smiled and laughed here and there, but my mind was elsewhere. Thinking about Liz, the life-sucking vision, Lyle… It was a lot to process in such a short amount of time. If I hadn't seen weird my entire life, I would've thought that this was some sort of demented joke to trick already troubled kids.

It was just hard to believe. There were just too many coincidences. It made me feel as though getting out of here was going to be hell of a lot harder than originally planned. I had hoped to be here only a few days, maybe a week, then go back home to dad before he left for China. The longer I was in here, the longer he was alone or having to deal with the presence of Aunt Lauren, especially with the anniversary coming up...

I sighed and rubbed my eyes in frustration. Would I even be able to get out before mom's anniversary? I've managed to visit her every single year, despite how tough it was. Now it was going to be all ruined because of this stupid place. Who knows when the last time her grave was cleaned….

I focused back on the conversation before I got too tied up about the thoughts of mom and her abandoned grave.

"- And that's what I think of that, Mr. Bae!" Rae said, leaning back with a smug look on her face. I looked over to Simon just in time to see him dramatically sigh and wipe an imaginary tear.

"I concede, you are a true debater, Rae, how could I have ever doubted you?" They both laughed a bit, while I tried to piece together what I missed. I looked over to Derek, hoping that he at least had a clue.

Spoonful halfway to his mouth, he paused and looked back at me, scowling at me a bit for interrupting sugar soup. I gestured over to Rae and Simon, giving him a confused look. He just shrugged and muttered something about comparing different art styles and which one's better. I mouthed an "Oh" before turning back to the two quickly shoveling the rest of their food in their faces. I looked past them to see that Tori and Liz had already left for our last class of the week. I stretched a bit and grabbed my bowl, intending to head to the sink before something warm clasped my wrist. I jumped a bit before realizing that the warm hand had belonged to Derek. Derek quickly pulled away before pointing to my oatmeal bowl.

I sighed and handed over the bowl, before he pushed my hand back. I looked at him, slightly irritated and confused.

"Sit." He said, giving me his usual scowl.

"Why? We're going to be late for class." I said, looking around to find that Rae was out of sight and Simon waving at me to hurry from across the hall. I made a small hand motion for him to go on ahead. He looked at me curiously before giving a bow.

"Whatever the lady demands." He yelled. One of the nurses chastised him from upstairs for being too loud, and he mumbled an apology before he went to class. I gave a small laugh before turning back to Derek and sitting down, pushing my bowl towards him again.

Instead of taking it like he usually did, he slid it back to me. Again.

"Don't worry about being late, she won't come looking for us until after class. When we get in, just explain to her that we were working out a couple math problems before class and got carried away with time."

I doubted she would believe it, but it would be hard to argue with a guy Derek's size and current grades. He was usually a model student from what I've heard from Simon, so she would probably just accept it and continue her game of solitaire.

"Okay, that answers one question, but what about my breakfast? I thought inspection season was over."

His glare hardened a bit, probably annoyance for having to explain himself so much. "Apparently not. You're still barely eating." I sighed as I looked down at my bowl. It seemed he was right, _of course_ , I snarled mentally. Not even half of it was gone.

"I'll have to tell Simon to get you to stop hounding me." I muttered, scooping up some and quickly swallowing it.

It didn't taste bad, in fact my stomach warmed a bit as I continued eating. I just had been so tied up in thinking that time passed quicker than I thought it would.

I looked over to Derek who had already put his bowl in the sink and had sat back down across from me. He was glaring at the floor, leaning back in his chair and tapping his fingers on his crossed arms.

 _Impatient, are we?_ I thought to myself, irritation bubbling up.

"You know, you can go on ahead if you want." I said between mouthfuls. He shook his head, shifting his scowl over to me.

"No. You need to finish." I complained quietly to myself about how I was a big girl and could take care of myself as he continued. "Besides… I think it's a good time to discuss a few things." I looked up at him, surprised, then looked around the area.

"Are you sure now's a good time? Out here?" He waved his hand, his impatience clearly showing.

"Everyone's out of earshot." He snapped. "Do you know where the key is to the basement door?" He demanded, straight to the point.

"No," I sighed, leaning back. "But I don't think we need it. The ghost said to get their stories, and I'm positive that I accomplished that task." Every time I even thought about the basement my stomach would turn in knots and my hands would start to shake a bit. I definitely wasn't ready to go back down there again… Maybe I could find someone to trade chores with…?

Derek shook his head. "He said "their", meaning more than one story."

I glared at him. "I think the first one gave us a big enough clue to what happened." I grit out. I didn't like where this conversation was headed. I looked down at my bowl to see that it was almost completely finished. I took the last couple bites and shoved the bowl out of the way of my arms. I put my head in my hand and toyed with the tablecloth, refusing to look Derek in the eye. He didn't deserve eye-contact right then. He dared to suggest having me go through another one of those nightmares.

He was basically asking me to go through another brutal murder.

"Listen. There are too many similarities here. The chances of having four of us under one roof is already near impossible. But to be in a house where a guy supposedly experimented on our kind?" I looked up to see him shaking his head and glaring at the table. "We need to gather all of the evidence, see how this relates to us. And we need to do this as soon as possible." He lifted his gaze toward mine. "Meet Simon and I outside. Same time as last time. Don't be late." He grunted as he got up, and headed straight toward the classroom without even waiting for me to catch up.

"Rude, sadistic jerk." I muttered under my breath, not caring if he heard. Why was he such a jerk? Couldn't he say please or thank you? I practically slammed the bowl in the sink before making my way over to the classroom.

"Chloe, please help me with this. I would so appreciate it if you did. I'll even get you a tub of icecream for your trouble!" I muttered to myself, doing my best impression of Derek's voice. "Oh why thank you Chloe! You risked your health and your sanity just so I could satisfy my curiosity! You're a true hero!" I stopped the voice as I got closer to the room, mumbling at how if he wanted to be a superman wannabe, he should start acting like it and put _himself_ on the frontlines instead.

I took a calming breath before I reached the handle and opened the door. Everything was quiet as usual. Simon gave me a quick wave and pointed to a folder that was sitting on an empty desk between him and Derek. I looked over to the substitute nurse who just nodded and motioned for me to take a seat.

 **.**

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As I sat down, Simon handed me a folded piece of paper. I looked at him curiously before looking back to the note and unfolding it. Inside, a chibi blonde character of himself was looking at me with what I could only guess was concern. His little chibi hand formed the last clue I needed to decipher what he was asking.

 _Are you okay?_

I smiled as I picked up my pencil and wrote back. When I handed it to him, I turned back to my folder and pulled out the first few assignments I needed to work on. Math, thankfully was off the table, seeing as I was, for the first time in my life, ahead of schedule. The teacher had moved the test to next Tuesday so that today could be used as a review day for everyone.

After about five minutes, Simon handed the note back.

 _Yeah, Derek just wanted to make sure that I finished breakfast. He sure follows your orders, how do you get him to do it? XD_

Below the written message was another picture, similar to the first. The chibi was confused again, holding up a paper with numbered instructions on how to make cereal. Around his head were little question marks.

 _Instructions?_

Underneath the picture, was a further explanation.

 _I don't even try to order him around. He can get touchy about being told what to do. Especially by me. Though I do suggest things quietly to him while he's asleep. Maybe my brainwashing is finally getting results?_

I laughed quietly and wrote a response down quickly before giving him the note back.

 _I guess so. You know, for a mad genius, you sure are terrible at math… maybe even worse than me!_

 _Now stop passing notes and start your homework. You were just telling us this morning how important it is to finish._

 _Good luck!_

I tossed the note back onto his desk and got back to work. After a couple minutes, I looked over to see Simon hunched over his homework, pouting. I giggled quietly and turned back, determined to finish these last two assignments before class finished.


	15. Chapter 15

**Hey guys! I am sooo very sorry again for how long it has taken me to update. To make it up to you, I made sure to finish the entirety of part 1 for you! Thank you guys so much for your follows and reviews. I hope you enjoy the rest of these chapters! Part 2 will be coming soon!**

 **Disclaimer: The characters belong to a wonderful Ms. Kelley Armstrong.**

Soon after class finished, I made my way to the kitchen to grab a quick snack and re-wrap my bandages before heading downstairs. I still didn't enjoy the idea of going down there, but Tori had made it clear toward the end of the class that if she didn't get her clothes by tonight, she would strangle me with her last clean pair of underwear. So, my choices were either death by ghost memories or death by Tori and her underwear.

I guess ghost memories was the best choice.

Quickly eating the last of the granola bar I grabbed and tightening the bandages, I headed toward the stairs to start before anyone could stop me. Before I could stop me. I turned on the stairway light and dreadfully made my way down.

Everything looked the same as yesterday, par for the growing pile of laundry sitting next to the two machines. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly as I made my way over, determined to get this over with as fast as possible.

I started to calm down halfway through folding what looked to be Rae's clothes. There was no strange ghost, no flashes of memories, no creepy chill down my spine. Hell, even the light above me wasn't flickering. I could do this. Easy. Just doing laundry in a basement that was just slightly creepy. The room would barely even make the cut for a horror movie.

As I put the last of the folded clothes in the basket and began loading Tori's clothes into the washer, I didn't notice the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs until I heard a throat clear behind me. To my complete and utter embarrassment, I squealed and jumped about a mile high. I turned quickly to find Tori standing there, waiting impatiently for me to calm down. After a couple deep breaths and the constant tapping of her foot, I straightened out and looked up at her.

"W-was there something you needed?" I asked, turning back around to put the soap in before starting the load. She sighed dramatically.

"Jeez, could you go any slower?" She snapped. "I'm seriously in need of clean clothes." I sighed a bit before turning the dial and letting the machine start. "Well, it'll be done by tonight, I promise." I said calmly.

 _Not her fault for being this way. Not her fault for being this way. Not her fault for being this way._ I chanted in my head. Maybe if I just continued playing nice, she would leave me be. Maybe think that I was too boring to poke and prod. I'm _sure_ there were better people here to pester.

Like Derek for example. Why oh why wouldn't she take him on?

I couldn't help the small smirk that made its way onto my face. Picturing Tori trying to sass Derek just to get thrown out a window was a good way to keep calm during her tantrums.

"Whatever. Anyway, I heard you and Derek mention something about a key for the locked door in here. Lucky for you I knew where to find it." I spun so quickly that I almost slipped on the tile floor.

"What? Really? How?" I asked, nervous yet excited at the same time. Even though I was scared about what I might find on the other side (and the fact that Tori was eavesdropping), I couldn't deny that different possibilities kept running laps in my head.

She rolled her eyes and made her way to the small door under the stairs. "Unlike you kiddies," She started before kneeling on the floor and pulling out the key in her pocket. "I'm mature enough to have access to some of the keys in the household. You don't see me sneaking around the shed outside thinking that it'll hold some kind of wimpy-ass mystery."

I made my way over to her and kneeled down as she stuck the key into the lock and opened the door. The room was pitch black, letting me know instantly that it was completely cut off from everywhere else. No windows, no cracks... not a shred of light was penetrating the black that seemed to slime its way out of the room. For a moment, I was reminded of the dripping black ooze from my classroom. It almost seemed just as black and inky as back then, and it made me hesitate going in.

Tori caught on to my hesitation in an instant. "Wow, scared of the dark? How old are you? Seven? Stop being a wuss." She reached behind her to grab her phone from her pocket and pressed a couple buttons before shining the light straight into the hole. She looked back at me.

"Happy now?" She snipped. I just rolled my eyes before crawling in as far as I could see. I turned my head to see her grabbing the key before following behind me, pointing the light past me to try and light our way.

The dark was thick, the light only piercing for a couple feet. But from what I could tell, the space was pretty...well, spacious. There were no walls around where I could feel, and judging by Tori's light, there were only small, concrete pillars littering the room, supporting the rest of the house as strong as they could. That seemed to be the only concrete in the room, however. The floor was completely unfinished, meaning that dirt was everywhere. I could hear Tori cuss me and the room out as we continued farther.

"You know," she whispered harshly. "I'm going to make you pay for some new clothes. It's your fault that we traveled down here in the first place. And for what? Dirt?" I sighed as I crawled in a little further before stopping, my hand on one of the pillars. There seemed to be something carved on to it, but I couldn't make it out with the lack of light.

"Hey Tori," I said, "bring the light over here, I think I found something." I heard some shuffling behind me, and just as I was about to turn around, something hit me, _hard_ , on the back of my head. My face planted itself into the dirt. I tried to suck in a quick breath, but dirt made its way into my throat. I coughed a bit, freaking out slightly. I couldn't breathe, and for a minute, I couldn't move. My head felt dizzy, and I completely forgot who and where I was. It took me a moment to gain my bearings, but I finally managed to slowly push myself up a bit. I was only allowed a brief victory breath before I was hit again, falling into blackness.

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I didn't know how long I was out, but I was finally starting to gain consciousness. I tried at first to open my eyes, but they felt heavy. What felt like dirt was crusting them together, and after peaking through one eye, only to realize I still couldn't see, I gave up and closed them again. Slowly but surely, my other senses came as well. My head was pounding, feeling as though someone was constantly hitting me with a baseball bat. I groaned and tried to raise my hand to it, but felt something restricting around both of my wrists. I tried to pull them apart, but to no avail. I started to panic, and when I tried breathing in, I failed. My mouth was covered by something sticky, and my nose was slightly stuffed with dirt. I couldn't help the muffled little scream that came out as I struggled to take my hands apart. I started crying, freaked out that I couldn't move or breath. I raised my hands to my face and started clawing at whatever was over my mouth.

After a few tries, I was finally able to find the tip of the tape. I ripped it off me as quick as I could, gasping and moaning at the pain it left behind. I sat there for a minute, sobbing quietly as I took in as much air as I could. It was only until I felt sure that I wasn't going to suffocate that I started to calm down a bit.

 _You're alive, Chloe, you can breathe. Your head may feel as if it's going to explode, but your alive. Pain is proof of that. Now, calm down. Breathe. How did you get here?_

I rubbed my hands on my pants before taking them both to my eyes, trying to get as much dirt out of them as possible. Luckily, my tears had done most of the work for me. Once I opened my eyes to still- complete darkness, I was able to remember where I was, and how exactly I got here.

 _Tori_.

Now, I wasn't one to cuss often, but I found that now I had a legitimate reason. _Tori_ being that reason.

What. A. Fucking. Bitch.

I glared at the blackness. Okay, so we probably weren't all supernaturals here. _Some_ of us were here for a good reason. A _very_ good reason.

I went to move my legs, but to my displeasure, they were also tightly bound together.

Of course she bound my legs.

I sighed heavily as I tried to shuffle around, trying to find a way to move. I crawled a few spaces forward, trying to find any sort of light, but I was out of luck. This meant that Tori had closed and locked the door, and seeing how there wasn't a key strapped on to me…

I took a deep breath, trying to stop my shaking. I was trapped, but hopefully not for long. Maybe if I could just -

A loud scraping noise interrupted my thoughts, making my blood freeze in fear. I slowly turned and looked behind me, but I still wasn't able to make out anything in the dark. Hell, I couldn't see my hand in front of me. There was something in here- here in the pitch black with me.

I tried to scoot forward a little faster, praying that I was going in the direction of the door. "T-t-t-tori?" I rasped, before having a coughing fit. There was still dirt in my mouth, in my throat. I desperately needed water.

The thing didn't respond, but I could hear something dragging through the dirt. The noise grew in volume as it started to catch up to me. I could feel myself slowing as ice coursed through my veins. My breath became nothing more than gasps, and I could feel myself sob, my chest heavy and clenching.

"P-p-p-ple-e-ease.." I rasped as loud as I could. It only came out as a whisper, and the feeling hopelessness started to creep in.

I felt something fall out of my pocket and quickly grabbed it, hoping for it to be something useful. I gave a little breathless laugh of relief as I realized the object I was holding was my cell. I quickly turned it on as I felt the thing finally get close to me. I had enough time to check the cell service (none, to my luck) before something grabbed and clung as hard as it could onto my ankles.

Anything that I might have had in my bladder let loose as I gave a breathless scream.

I hurriedly turned my phone towards the creature and tried to kick it away from my legs. I stopped though, as soon as I saw what it was.

Pale, claw-like fingers were wrapped tight around my ankles, which led to long pale arms that looked too twisted to be natural. Through the arms, a broken ribcage barely covered by skin showed, and behind that a tailbone that looked to be upside down, the legs coming straight down from the bone to the ground without bending. As the light traveled up, the face became visible.

Giant, reflective eyes. No mouth, and the top of the head missing, as if it had been completely sawed through.

It slowly let one hand rise from its bruising grip on my ankles to point towards me. As it did, the head slowly began to turn.

And turn.

And turn.

It slowly clicked to a stop, and facing me was just a giant, wide mouth, grinning with bloody teeth. I was frozen in place with fear, too scared to move, too scared to scream, and too scared to look away.

After a few minutes of silence, the mouth frowned. Seeing it move, I was unable to control the small whimper that escaped my lips.

The creature seemed to jump for a second, almost as if I had scared it, then smiled again, before letting out shrill, high pitched laughter.

As soon as it made noise, I finally was able to scream. I started to kick as hard as I could with my suddenly alive legs. I managed to get my ankles out of it's one-handed grip, and I started to crawl the best that I could toward what I could only hope was the entrance. I could hear the thing slowly catch up to me, still shrieking its shrill laughter.

I clutched my phone as tightly as I could, trying not to lose the one thing that I had. From the light, I was able to make out that I was heading toward one of the walls of the house. I was close. I shuffled even faster, and started to cry in relief when the door was starting to open. The light peered only for a few seconds before it was blocked by a large figure.

"Chloe?"

I don't think I have ever been happier to see another person in my life than I was just then. I didn't care if it was Derek. At this moment, he was the best person in my life.

"D-D-Derek! H-H-" The thing had caught up. I only had a moments notice when it's cold grip wrapped around my calf. I only had a moment to open my mouth to scream before it began yanking me backwards. Derek's eyes widened and, faster than I thought possible, reached out to grab onto the ropes that were wrapped around my wrists. I felt my body jerk from the pulling of both sides, and I let out a small cry of pain.

Derek grunted as he tried to pull me closer to him, and the creature let out a shrill scream before letting go unexpectedly. I flew into Derek, pushing him slightly from the door. I quickly turned away from him, slamming the small door closed and turning the key to lock it before pulling it out and throwing it as far away from me as possible. I turned back to the door waited for a moment, watching. I could still here the creature behind it screeching and scrambling, trying to find me. Both Derek and I jumped a bit as the creature tried ramming the door, but it must've realized that it was useless, because I could here it scamper away to wherever it may have come from.

We were still for a moment, both trying to make sure that it wasn't coming back. After about a minute or two, I gave a shaky breath of relief and turned into Derek, latching on to him and silently crying. Right now, I didn't care that I was hugging and crying on Derek, of all people. I was just so relieved to be out of there.

I could feel him freeze up for a second before pulling me back slightly. He scanned my face quickly before scanning the rest of me. I blushed and slightly pushed away when I remembered that part of my pants wouldn't be too… pleasant to be around.

"I-I-I'm s-s-so s-s-sor-ry. I-I'm j-ju-just s-so r-r-relieved-" I stuttered, still rattled and shaking. He cut me off by standing both of us up.

"It's fine." He grumbled. He looked around the room for a moment before walking over to the dryer. He opened the door and pulled out a pair of Tori's pants (Rae must've stolen them for a day), then reached up to the toolbox, grabbing a small box knife. He walked back over, making quick work of the ties around my hands and feet. After he discarded the rope, he handed me the pants.

"Change, then meet me upstairs in the guys' bathroom."

I rubbed my wrists as I went to stand by the dryer, that way in case Derek turned around, he still wouldn't be able to see anything.

"Wh-wh-what abo-abo-" He began walking toward the stairs.

"The nurses have all gone to bed. Mrs. Talbot left your medication on the table for when you "got better."

I quickly got out of my pants and put on Tori's, hoping that my smell would forever ruin her jeans. It was the least she deserved.

After changing quickly, I ran up to meet Derek by the stairs, walking with him to my room. He opened the door and waited. I looked up at him curiously.

He sighed a bit before explaining as if I should have already guessed. "Grab some clean clothes and shower first. Then I'll come in and patch you up." I nodded and hurried into the room, noting that Liz was already asleep. I quietly opened the drawer and grabbed what I needed before leaving the room and walking towards the boys' bathroom, where Derek was waiting just outside of his bedroom door across the hall. In his hands was a book, along with some medical supplies to his right. He didn't look up from his book as I passed by. I took a step closer, but was ushered to hurry by his hand pointing towards the bathroom door. I sighed and went in, making sure to lock the door behind me.


	16. Chapter 16

I unlocked and opened the door after I had finished showering and getting dressed, letting Derek come inside with the first aid kit. He closed the door behind him before motioning toward the sink counter. I took the hint and tried to pull myself up, but everything hurt too much. My entire body felt as if it had been hit by several trucks. My wrists and ankles were badly bruised, my face cut up very much like my arms. My legs, luckily, were free of scratches, but there were huge bruises on my calves and ankles from when Derek and the thing decided to play tug-of-war. And after the adrenaline had run its course, my headache was back even stronger than before, probably due to me attempting to wash some of the blood out of my hair but not reopen the cut.

"Can't I sit on the toilet instead?" I muttered, and turned around to see Derek roll his eyes before picking me up and placing me on the counter. He then pulled up his sleeves, ignoring my surprised look, and began to wash his hands.

"Just ask if you need help." He grumbled, turning the water off and shaking his hands dry. He opened the kit and took out a couple of disinfectant wipes. I tried to reach out for one, but he took it away from my reach.

"I can do this myself. No need to stay awake." I said quietly, reaching again for the wipe. He simply moved it to his other hand and shook his head.

"It's going to hurt. I don't trust that you'll clean it properly." I glared at him, crossing my arms. My glare was no match for his own, however, and I looked away, grumbling quietly in defeat.

"Besides," he said, grabbing my chin and ignoring my flinch. "I wasn't able to sleep anyway." He started dabbing the numerous cuts that I had left on my face from trying to rip the duct tape off. I held in any sort of whining, trying not to give Derek any more reason to act all condescending towards me. I couldn't help but flinch with each rub, though. He wasn't kidding, the stuff stung more than I expected it to, but I stood as still as I could, hoping that this would be over as soon as possible.

He was gentle, which surprised me. I was half-expecting him to rub half of my face off, or to bruise my chin just from holding it, but neither happened. I did, however, notice that his hands were warm… almost uncomfortably warm.

He stepped back and dropped his hand from my chin, turning and throwing the wipes before grabbing new ones to clean up the small scratches I had down my arms. I looked at him closely, noticing how his eyes were too bright and that his face was slightly flushed.

"Derek, are you sick?" I asked. He just shrugged his shoulders. "Just a cold, nothing bad." He then started on the next arm, wiping it all down before he put the bandages on. After he did, he held both of my hands out in front of him, inspecting them. I looked down and winced slightly at how bad they looked.

"I couldn't see what attacked you." He stated, looking more closely at the bruises. "But it was able to grab you, pull you." He measured his hands against the marks. "It had pretty long fingers, too." He muttered quietly to himself, dropping my hands. It was then that he looked up at me. "Was this like the one before?"

I was about to nod before I stopped myself, both from trying to figure out what to say and from Derek suddenly taking my head and turning it away, trying to get a better look at the cuts on the back of my head. I was able to start again when he let go to grab a couple more wipes. "S-sort of. I could hear it, and it could h-hurt me, but it looked different, and it didn't talk this time. Just… laughed." I shuddered at the thought. He thought for a moment, leaving the both of us in silence for a moment while he finished cleaning my head up. As he did, I looked down to assess the damage to my palms. Luckily, the bandages were on the entire time, only allowing minor scab damage to both. I sighed in relief.

The silence was broken by Derek when he turned my head back. "The cuts weren't too deep. Head wounds tend to look worse than they actually are. Just don't touch them. Any way you can roll up your pants?"

I nodded, thankful that I chose to wear my baggy sweatpants. I decided to roll them up to just below my knee, then stopped there. It was a little uncomfortable, especially with how close he was. I never was one for too much physical contact, and this was already too much for my liking. But I figured that if it was bad for me, it was probably worse for him. He did a quick clean of them, keeping the contact between the both of us as small as possible. He did take a moment to look at the bruises, around my ankles and calves, but not nearly as long as he eyed the ones on my wrists.

"The best thing to do for the bruises is to ice them. Twenty on twenty off." He took me from under the arms and dropped me down, not being to gentle. I grunted sofly, and gave him a small glare. It was rude to just drop me all of a sudden, but I was relieved to finally have at least some of my personal space back. I took a moment to straighten out my clothes as he continued.

"Make sure to wear long pants, as well as something to cover your wrists. Your bandages should work fine for that."

I shook my head slightly. "That won't work. I'm supposed to be airing them out more often, now that they're actually healing."

He opened the bathroom door, heading out and turning off the light before I could even make my way out.

"Just say they reopened again if someone asks." He reached for the door handle of his and Simon's room but paused when I made a small sound, and looked back toward me.

"L-L-Let's keep this between us. I don't want to trouble Simon. And if it gets out there that Tori did this, it could only get worse." And I also didn't want to brag about the fact that Derek was the one to save me and clean me up in the middle of the night.

He turned halfway back around. "Good idea. But you should talk to Simon. He…" Derek paused before running his hand on the back of his neck, trying to think of words he so rarely uses. "He would like to make sure you're okay. He's good at making people feel better."

I watched him for a second before nodding. "Good point. I'll think about it." I murmured, already deciding a hard _no_ to that issue. He gave a sharp nod to this, and before I knew it, he was inside his room with the door shut tight.

Feeling suddenly alone in the cold, dark hallway, I quickly made my way back to my room and locked the door, breathing a sigh of relief that Liz was here, peacefully asleep. I made my way to my bed, my body falling asleep almost immediately after I pulled the covers around me.

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The next morning I was exhausted both physically and mentally. Due to how late I was up, I had only about five hours of sleep the night before.

I looked around the room to see that Liz had already gotten up and dressed, and was humming something quietly to herself as she flipped a page in her book. At the sound of me getting up, her head whipped around to look at me with a big smile on her face.

"You're awake! I didn't hear you come back in last night! What time did you come back? I didn't know if you would ever come out of our bathroom! Tori and I had to use the boys' bathroom the entire time. Tori kept complaining about you getting your germs all over her things, but I managed to convince her not to bother you while you were in there. Mrs. Talbot was worried too, but I told her that you'd probably be better in the morning. She's going to be so relieved to see you out and about again!"

Liz continued to ramble on as I breathed a sigh of relief. Even though Tori was enemy number one, I was relieved that she had made a cover story for me. I didn't feel up to having to explain to everybody where I was, or have the nurses accuse me of trying to escape. I slowly got out of bed, trying to ignore the slow throb of my head. It was getting better, luckily. I tuned back in to Liz as I made my way to the closet.

"- should've seen the look on Ms. Van Dop's face! It definitely was worth it. Rae couldn't stop laughing. Tori kept saying how immature it was, but when Simon joined in, she couldn't help but smile a bit too! Who knew that she was so scared of frogs! I can't believe you missed it! I've never seen someone pull such a great prank here. Especially on Ms. Van Dop, she can be really scary. But Rae wasn't scared, and she didn't even get into trouble! She just said that it must've wandered in from the pipes! She only told us later at dinner that she did it."

At the mention of dinner, my stomach gave a loud growl.

"Oh that's right!" she practically shouted, jumping off the bed. I flinched a little, my headache threatening to grow worse. She paid no mind, and seeing me finished dressing, she grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the door. I tried to not wince at her grip, both loving and hating the fact that my bandages were working at covering everything. "You probably haven't eaten since yesterday! Well good news! I heard the nurses talking about making some french toast with strawberries today! I think it's because Mr. Davidoff is heading over, but why not enjoy a good thing, right?" We were making our way downstairs, me trying to keep track of Liz's conversation.

"Wait," I said, a little out of breath from her speed. "Who's Dr. Davidoff?" She started to slow down as we drew near the dining room.

"Oh, that's right! You still haven't met him! He's nice, though he looks a little creepy. He's basically the head honcho. He likes to check up on us every now and then to make sure that we're getting 'better'." she said, using air quotes. I couldn't help but match her smile when she turned to look at me. "Though we both know we're too much for even him to handle." She gave a small giggle as we emerged into the dining room. Liz took her seat next to Tori, and without looking at anyone, I quickly made my way into the kitchen to take my pills. Mrs. Talbot smiled at me and was glad to see that I was back to the land of the living.

If she only knew.

I made my way back to the table, sitting as far away from Tori as possible. I took the spot next to Rae, at the end of the right side. Rae gave me a smile, and went back to her meal as Simon started talking.

"Hey, finally feeling better? We were worried about you. Derek over here couldn't stop worrying." I raised an eyebrow at Derek, who was eating as much as possible before anyone could grab seconds. He rolled his eyes at Simon's comment.

"That was you." He grumbled, returning to his meal. Simon gave a small laugh and rubbed the back of his head.

"Oh yeah. I guess that was me." He said, sending a charming smile my way. Though I was a little concerned about what Tori would make of this, I couldn't help but smile back. His smiles were too contagious.

"Thanks, I'm good now. I'm sorry for taking up a bathroom." Rae gave a quiet snort at that.

"It's fine. Queen Victoria over here may have complained a bit, but it was obvious she was excited about 'accidentally' walking in on Simon…." I froze a second at the mention of Tori, but quickly relaxed in order to look unperturbed. The worst thing you could do with a bully is show them weakness. I just continued to eat my food, grabbing a second piece and a spoonful of strawberries before they were gone.

"Well, _Rachel_ , look who's finally taken a breath between bites." She snapped back, not missing a beat. "What would your mother say to you stuffing your face? Oh, wait! That's right…. Maybe it's a good thing she's forgotten about you." Rae glared over at the other girl with so much ice that it almost could compete to Derek's.

"At least I don't throw a tantrum whenever mother dearest doesn't approve, Victoria. Shut up and go back to taking your princess pills."

At that, Tori gave a screech and stood up from the table, jumping onto Rae and attacking her. Liz and I quickly stood up from our spots and moved out of the way. After getting over the initial shock, her and I ran over to pull them apart, hearing the nurses from upstairs rushing down to us. Liz and I took Tori off of Rae, holding her arms to keep her from scratching any more of Rae's face. Rae stood up slowly and wiped the blood of her face with her arm. She suddenly grinned.

"Oh it's on, bitch." She made to leap forward, barely reaching Tori and scratching her face before Simon hooked his arms around Rae and pulled her back.

"Rae, hold on-" She pulled away from him, but I stepped in front of Tori. Holding myself as tall and as wide as I could for someone the size of a garden gnome. Rae stopped for a second, and the nurses came bursting in. Quickly, we stood straight, not moving. Derek was still sitting at the table, eating his fill. I glared as he reached over and grabbed at my french toast.

Asshole.

"What." Ms. Van Dop demanded, looking as though she was containing an explosion. "Is going on here?"

Tori pulled her arm away from Liz and straightened her clothes. " _Rae,"_ she sneered, the name poison in her mouth, "was just showing me some weird dance move that she saw around her... _mother's_ roughed-up neighborhood. She messed it up, of course." I had to hand it to Tori, she was a quick liar, I would've just stood there stuttering, trying to think of something. The nurses looked doubtful, but turned to look at Rae. She gave Tori a cold glare before turning to the nurses. "Yeah… sorry, we accidently fell and managed to scratch each other." She said, pretending to look embarrassed. Liz and I made eye-contact and rolled our eyes at the bad attempt. It was obvious that the nurses didn't believe it, but they chose to look past it.

"Well. Let's not do that again. Tori, Rae, you're both in charge of cleaning this up. Rae, you take care of both bathrooms this week as punishment. Tori, you finish up the laundry. Lucky for you Chloe has some of it done already." They both reluctantly agreed as the nurses left, par for Ms. Gill, who decided to stay behind to whisper something to Derek, before padding him on the back and walking away. I saw a flash of anger pass over Derek's face before he quickly schooled his features, picking up his plate and putting it in the sink.

I quickly stepped away from Tori and moved to finish the last few bites of my food, relieved that the fight was stopped and that I wouldn't have to go downstairs again for the time being.


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer: The characters belong to the oh so gracious Ms. Kelley Armstrong!**

Because of my sudden switch in chores, I found myself outside raking leaves with Simon. It was a nice day, a cool breeze making its way through the warm August weather. I was also glad for the easiness of the chore. With fall just starting, there were few leaves to be raked. Honestly, I couldn't see why the nurses made this a chore, but I figured that they just wanted the place to look better than usual for when the big boss showed up.

I put my rake against the tree, pausing my work to stretch the stiffness out of my bones and bruises. I was starting to feel a little bit better as the day dragged on, being outside and getting fresh air probably didn't hurt either. My headache had slowed to just a dull pain, and as long as I didn't move too quickly, I could go through the day as if nothing had ever happened.

I smiled at Simon as he called out to me. "Hey! No slacking! I believe I see a leaf or two over here that needs to be picked up!" I laughed as I grabbed back the rake and made my way over to him.

It was nice, hanging out with Simon. He seemed to always have a smile on his face, and was willing to make up most of the conversation if I ever felt too tired to do so myself. I couldn't help but feel relaxed around him.

He was a good friend, and I wasn't going to let Tori scare me out of that. I just had to make sure that I was never alone in a closed off space with her, is all. Should be pretty easy now that she can't fool me twice, right?

I tsked at myself, standing over the one leaf that Simon had pointed out. "I'll be honest, I'm completely ashamed of myself. How could I miss such an obvious mistake?"

Simon grinned as bent and picked up the leaf, throwing it in the pathetic leaf pile we'd attempted to make. "I guess no one could be as perfect as I am at this. I guess I'll let you off with just a warning." He gave me a wink as I giggled.

"Oh, how courtious of you." I said, bending down to grab the folded up garbage bag. I quickly thrashed it open before beginning to gather the leaves inside.

"Ya know, I could basically drink from the amount of sarcasm you give."

I gave him a smile as he bent down to help. "Sorry, I guess I've been around Derek and the others for too long." He gave a small laugh at that.

"Being around him will definitely have an impact on your humor." He reached out and grabbed my hand, giving it a small squeeze. "Maybe it's time for a change in company." He said, giving me one of his charming smiles. I couldn't help the blush that spread across my face.

"I think that's a good idea." I said shyly, pulling my hand away and going back to moving the leaves.

Maybe a change in company was exactly what I needed.

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It wasn't until later that afternoon that we had all finished our chores. The nurses had suggested that we all stay in the living room area and watch a movie before Dr. Davidoff made his appearance. Seeing as though it was more of an order than a suggestion, we made our way in and 'let' Tori and Liz pick the movie. Rae and I rolled our eyes at the movie they picked, and I made my way over to the bookshelf that rested on the far wall. Anything would be better than sitting through this one.

Now, don't get me wrong, I didn't hate chick-flicks, I just had to be in a rare mood for them. And today I was certainly not feeling it. Looking around the books, I finally settled on the full collection of the Grimm's Fairy Tales, pulling it out gently and then heading back to my seat. I looked over to see Derek already flipping through one of his own books while Simon sat there on his 3DS. Rae just laid there, staring blankly at the t.v., her eyes slowly drifting closed. Everyone seemed to fall into a routine, so I made a mental note to grab something the next time we were forced together.

Looking over to see what Derek was reading, I suddenly had the stinging realization of _why_ he acted like I was so incapable of handling myself. The guy must've been reading something meant for final year college students. I looked back down to what I was holding and suddenly felt like a stupid child, picking childish fairytales while genius over here was going through equations dealing with hypothetical changes in the planet's rotation and how it may affect the gravitational pull or whatever.

My looking over grabbed his attention, and he looked away from his book to scan over what I was reading. I bristled a bit, just waiting for him to say something. After a few moments, he looked up at me and, to my utter shock and indignation, gave me what can only be described as the most condescending smirk in history before rolling his eyes and turning back to his own book. I gripped mine, giving him the best glare I could muster, before slamming the book shut and getting up to move somewhere as far away from Derek as I could.

Not everyone gets to be brilliant.

Jerk.

We were about halfway through the movie when there was a knock on the door. I quietly closed my book and made my way to the door to answer it.

Liz was right on the mark with calling this guy creepy.

He was a scarecrow. As thin as sticks and as tall as the doorframe. The top of his head was starting to bald, and round-rimmed glasses perched on top of his nose. He didn't notice me until he craned his neck down a bit, and when he did, he gave me a smile.

"Ah, you must be the new roommate, Chloe. It is so good to finally see you. I'm Dr. Davidoff. I'll be talking to you and the others today to make sure everything is going alright for you guys." He extended his hand, and after hesitating a moment, I reached out and shook it, giving him a fake smile of my own.

"Hello," I started quietly, noticing that in the background, the movie had stopped and everyone was quiet. I stepped aside to let him in, closing the door behind him and following him to the living room. The nurses had made their way downstairs to greet the doctor before heading to the kitchen to start lunch preparations.

Everyone had rearranged themselves to sit on the couches, leaving two seats open for me and Dr. Davidoff. Simon patted the one between him and Derek, and I made my way over, sitting up straight and in the middle, mindful not to accidentally bump into either of them.

We all faced Dr. Davidoff as he sat down, taking out a notebook and pen. He set it on his lap before smiling at all of us.

"Alright gang, I'm sure you already know everything about each other and are already buddy buddy." I gave a quiet snort at that, the bruises around my wrists and ankles suddenly becoming hypersensitive. "But I want to get to know you guys better as well. Since we haven't had this session with Chloe, why don't we let her introduce herself before we get started." My throat became dry as he turned to me, as well as the eyes of a few others.

"What can you tell us about yourself, Chloe?" He asked calmly, clicking his pen and waiting for me to respond. I ran my hand through my hair before turning on a smile.

"Well… uh… I-I'm sixteen years old…. I-I live with my dad, a-and my aunt comes to visit me every now and then. I go to a sort-of art school around here."

"Good, Chloe." He smiled, he then turned to the person sitting to his left. "Victoria? How have you been since I visited last week? Your mom said you were still struggling just a bit." I noticed her fists clench as she gave a smile towards him.

"Oh, I'm doing just fine now! The new medication has been working really well. No side effects, either!" Dr. Davidoff gave a smile and a nod, jotting a couple sentences down before turning back to her.

"Very good! Now, I notice that you and Liz are still very good friends. How about Rae and Chloe? Have you been able to expand your circle to them?" He made a gesture to include the rest of us.

Tori looked up and met my eyes, a snide look coming across her face. "Rae and I still haven't seen eye-to-eye. But I think Chloe and I have reached an understanding."

I narrowed my gaze at her, clenching my fists in my lap.

"Very good! I'm glad to see that you're trying!" He looked back down at his notebook for a second before turning to Liz.

"Elizabeth, how was your week? Anything new or exciting?" She gave a big smile as she rambled a bit about how her and I were now roommates and how she was having a lot of fun with me and the others. Dr. Davidoff nodded throughout her stories, writing little things here and there before asking, "Great! Now, since we've put you on your current medication, have you had any sort of negative thoughts or feelings? Ones that stray outside of normalcy?"

Liz gave a shake of her head, casting a sly glance my way and winking. I rolled my eyes, she was just loving the fact that her and I had an inside secret.

"Nope! I didn't even feel that upset when I found out I failed an assignment."

He nodded and jotted down a few more notes. Rae and Simon went on similarly, talking about their weeks and how well they were able to get along with the new roommate as well as with the others. Simon managed to crack a few jokes while Rae kept hers simple and to the point, but looked to be excited to be talking with the doctor. It was easy to tell that she wanted out of here just as badly as the rest of us. When it was my turn, I made sure to keep my answers simple and clean, very much like everyone else did. I may have made a sly comment about Tori, but it wasn't anything that Dr. Davidoff took note of or even mentioned. Once I was finished, Dr. Davidoff asked me the routine questions of 'Is my medicine working?' or 'Anything strange happening?' Before turning to Derek.

Derek didn't put on a smile like the others, but he was leaning back in the chair, relaxed, his hands for once tied up in his lap instead of crossed up on his chest. I noticed Dr. Davidoff's face waver for a second before holding up the same smile he gave everyone else.

"How about you, Derek? I see that you're sitting next to Chloe today instead of Simon. Have you been able to expand your circle as well?" Derek simply shrugged his shoulders and muttered something about Simon choosing to have Chloe sit here. Dr. Davidoff looked between the three of us before writing something down, making me squirm a bit in my chair. He looked back up to Derek, a more serious look in his eyes.

"Now, has the counseling with Dr. Gill been working at all? Do you feel as if you'll be able to handle yourself in a tough situation?" I looked at Derek's face before quickly looking around the room at the others. Tori was busy looking at her nails while Liz looked as if she was desperately trying not to piss herself. Rae looked lost in her thoughts and Simon was peering over at his brother in concern. I could understand why. He still looked like his usual self, grumpy and brooding, but for a split second, he looked… defeated. I would've thought I was imagining it if it wasn't for Simon's look.

The boy in question hesitated a moment before nodding his head. "I think I've made some progress." He stated simply. Dr. Davidoff nodded, closing his book and placing it in his bag.

"Well, some progress is good, but we need complete success before we make any final decisions. Dr. Gill will make sure to implement some new tactics from now on. See if we can take this from a different angle." He stood up as he smiled to the others.

"It's always great hearing from you guys. And it was a pleasure to meet you, Chloe. You guys keep up the good work. I'll see you all next week." We all got up as he made his way into the kitchen to talk and survey the nurses. Simon quickly grabbed my hand, making me wince slightly as he started to pull me outside. "Come on, I've been itching to play some basketball all day." He quickly looked over his shoulder. "You comin', bro?" Derek just shook his head as he got up and began going upstairs. I looked back to Simon to see him shrug before we took off.

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It took Simon about a half hour to realize that it was nearly impossible to teach me how to score. I teased him about being a horrible coach as I made my way over to the bench that sat next to the hoop. It was silent for a couple minutes, the dribbling of the ball and the bang of the backboard every now and then the only present noise. After Simon had finally made a shot, I finally got the courage to ask what had been on my mind since the end of the therapy group.

"Hey Simon, I know I probably shouldn't ask, but what happened in Albany?" The ball fell out of Simon's hands, and I bent down to grab it. He slowly made his way over to me and joined me on the bench.

"Who told you about Albany?" He said, serious. My eyes widened as I looked at him. Since the the day I had first arrived, I don't think I ever saw Simon so still and serious as just then.

"I-I-" I sat up a little straighter before clearing my throat and trying again. "My aunt said something about how Derek caused trouble in Albany, but she didn't explain any further. Just made it clear that I should steer clear. And then with what Dr. Davidoff said-" Simon held up a hand to cut me off, looking confused.

"Wait, your Aunt? How did _she_ know?" My face turned a bit red in shame as I looked down at my feet.

"Well, my aunt is very protective, and since she was a nurse, she managed to convince the nurses here to let her take a peek through your files."

He sighed heavily and sank into the bench, running a hand through his hair before turning to me.

"I guess it's only fair I tell you. We already know how you got here. I just need you to keep in mind…" He paused, looking for the words that could hopefully explain what he was thinking.

"Derek has always been a rule-follower. Even when he first came into the family. He never broke dad's rules, and for the longest time, he didn't talk either. I only have an idea about where he came from, but he's never told me what actually happened there. All I know is that he was so scared about going back, he was willing to do anything for me and my dad. He still is." He paused, looking as though he was lost in his memories for a moment before snapping back and continuing.

"Albany's a weird place. A lot of the kids in school were… old-fashioned, I guess. Not everyone, but enough. I was waiting for Derek to finish talking to his teacher, when a few kids came up. One kid kept going on about how his grandfather was killed in the Vietnam war or something like that, and, because I am so _obviously_ Vietnamese," he rolled his eyes and I gave a small laugh. "They felt that I should be the one to blame. I told them that I was actually half Korean, and wouldn't you know it? A different kid knew this one person who was mugged in South Korea. It probably wasn't smart of me, but I told him that since I'm _obviously_ the one who did it, I can just give the wallet back. They didn't think it was too funny, and started to gang up on me. I thought I could take them, but all of a sudden one of them pulls out a knife and I froze." He reached for my hand and gave it a squeeze, smiling a bit sadly as he explained the rest.

"Derek had made his way outside by that point, and once he saw the knife pointed at me, he went into autopilot. He quickly got the two other guys away from me, and when he grabbed the one with the knife, he threw him straight into a wall. Two of the guys got the hint and ran, but the third one didn't move.

Derek had called 9-1-1, and after he was sent to the hospital, we found out that he wasn't going to be able to walk again."

I looked at him, eyes wide and shocked. Simon continued, defending his brother.

"He didn't mean to. He was only trying to stop me from getting stabbed. Derek didn't have any control - still has little control- over his strength. He got big fast, so he's still learning. I shouldn't have egged those guys on. It was stupid. I should've just gotten out of there." He finished, letting go of my hand and grabbing the ball. He spun it around in his hand a few times.

"It wasn't too long after that that dad disappeared, and we then got sent here. I've talked about escaping, about finding dad, but Derek refuses to go. He thinks he belongs here."

I turned toward him. "But why? He was just -"

"Just nothing." A low voice snapped. Both Simon and I jumped and turned to see Derek striding over to us. His glare settled on me.

"Just because he was being a stupid kid didn't mean that I should've paralyzed him." I opened my mouth to counter his remark, but he just held up his hand to stop me.

"I don't want to hear it. I'm staying here." He made his way around us before sitting down in front of the bench. He glared at me for a moment longer before turning his glare to Simon. "I'm a big boy, I can handle it."

"Derek, you're practically trapped here! You've been going stir-crazy! They're not letting you blow off any steam."

Derek just ignored him, turning to me. "I stay here. But you two can't."


	18. Chapter 18

"What do you mean I can't stay here?" I asked, suspicious. He turned to Simon.

"You need to find dad. You're the one with the tracking spell. And Chloe," he stated, looking over to me. "Can assist, that way you guys have each other's backs."

"Wait, wait. Why do I need to leave?" I asked impatiently. He glowered and looked at the ground, shifting a bit.

"As I've said before. There are too many coincidences here. And after what happened with Tori…"

"Wait. What happened with Tori?" Simon asked, looking between the two of us. I glared at Derek, outrageously upset and betrayed. He said he would keep that between us, and I don't think it had slipped out on accident.

"Nothing." I said, gritting my teeth. "Nothing happened. Just some idle threats."

"Yeah…..idle." Derek muttered rolling his eyes. Simon caught the look and genuinely looked nervous.

"What did she say? How bad were they?" he asked, turning to me. I turned away from Derek to calm him down.

"Simon, I'm fine. I promise. But I guess Derek does bring up a good point. I don't feel comfortable here. And if you would like, I think I'm willing to help you find your dad." I said giving him a small smile.

I didn't like the thought of running away, but I was left with pretty much no choice. Aunt Lauren would never believe me, and Dad was leaving soon anyway, if he hadn't left already. And since Simon's dad (Kit, I later learned) was a sorcerer, maybe he knew some things about necromancers. Maybe I could finally get some real help.

Simon smiled back, nice and wide. "Of course! But are you sure? It's not going to be easy, we'll be sleeping in the streets, hiding from the nurses, exploring a whole new world…." I laughed a bit at the last part.

"Okay Aladdin. I understand." I paused for a second, Liz's face popping up in my head. I turned back to Derek, my voice becoming icy.

"Did you ever find out about what Liz might be?" I asked. Derek shifted a bit before nodding. "Yeah… I was reading that some half-demons have telekinetic abilities. It's possible that whenever she's angry, her mind subconsciously uses the power to attack. It would make more sense than her having a poltergeist that you can't see or being a shaman that can't remember when she popped out of her body."

I nodded slowly. "I think we should take Liz too. She's here for the wrong reason, and maybe your dad can help her too." I looked over to see Simon thinking it over.

"It would be beneficial to have someone who can throw things with her mind."

Derek shook his head. "We don't know if we can trust her not to tell the nurses."

"I know she won't." I stated. This just earned me a glare.

"She might not mean to. She could slip in front of Tori and then Tori could tell them."

This sounded more likely to happen, but I wasn't going to back down. "She needs to come with us. I can tell her what we are planning to do, but I won't tell her until the day we're leaving, as well as leave out most of the details." Derek and I glared each other down until Simon interrupted.

"Derek, she's got a point, and her plan's pretty good." He said quietly. I turned toward him and gave him an appreciative smile as Derek sighed in defeat.

"Fine. But don't tell her anything until the day of." He snapped.

"Fine. And what day will this be? Do we need to work out a plan?" I asked. Derek shook his head.

"Already have one. Pack up what you need in a small bag that you can hide from the nurses. The day with the least amount of nurses will be on Monday, so you'll be escaping that night through the back door."

"The code?" I asked, remembering the cameras and the keypad-locked door.

Derek waved his hand. "Already know it. By the time they check the cameras, you guys will already be far enough away."

I was thinking back to all the escapee movies that I knew of, trying to think of anything that needed to be planned.

"Is there some place to lay low for a couple days? Somewhere the nurses or police are unlikely to check?"

Simon smiled. "That's a pretty good question. Luckily Derek over here has been scouting around at night for just that reason. There's a huge old factory about a mile from here. Only half of it is being used anymore. We could stay at the other half, and the police wouldn't think to look there because of the fact that most of it is still in use."

I nodded. "Alright. You guys said Monday night?" I asked. My gut wrenched a bit, knowing that Tuesday would be the anniversary of my mother's death. Maybe Simon would let me sneak out to visit her.

"More like Tuesday. You guys will have to leave pretty early to make sure that everyone's still asleep. 2 or 3 A.M. should work." Derek grumbled.

That made sense. It was a decent plan for a few teenagers running away on such short notice. It would also give the nurses the idea that we've been away long enough to make it farther than where we actually planned to be. The only thing left was to convince Liz to come with us. I didn't know too much about her family background, but maybe she was willing to give it a try just so that she could get out of there.

Simon began to get up and stretch, groaning loudly. "Now that we officially have a plan. I vote on going to grab some lunch. Would you guys like to join me?" I gave him a small smile.

"I will, I just need to talk to Derek for a sec." Derek stopped in the middle of getting up, looking up to see my glare before he huffed and sat back down, crossing his arms.

Simon looked surprised for a second before shooting Derek a sly grin. It reminded me a bit of a fox.

"Ooooooooo, look who's in the dog house." Simon laughed as Derek's expression turned even more sour than usual. Simon made a run for it as soon as he saw Derek reach for the basketball that was left forgotten on the ground. He watched Simon run for a second before chucking the ball at his brother, hitting him squarely on the back of his knees. Simon gave a small "oof" as he fell, and I couldn't help but give a snort at how he looked. He got up and brushed himself off, flipping off Derek as he continued to make his way inside.

Derek moved back to his spot and sat, tapping his fingers on his knee as he waited for me to start. I could tell his impatience was growing by the second, and I relished in the silence, eagerly waiting to get a rise out of him.

He lasted about ten seconds before he finally snarled. "What?"

I smiled evilly at my victory before settling back down to a glare.

"You know, I was starting to wonder why you had taken a little interest in me. Too bad for you that I don't really like playing the part of the 'pawn'."

Derek looked back up at me, confused. "What?"

"The pawn? In chess? Using me as a tool to convince Simon to leave?" He looked shocked for a second before turning away, plucking at the grass.

"Why are you so upset? I'm getting you out of here with Simon. I'm sure he'll be forever grateful for you helping him out. You'll forever be on his good side." He stated, looking up at me with a condescending smirk. I felt my eye twitch.

I put on an exaggerated smile and clasped my hands together in front of me. "You really think so? Oh, it'll be so romantic! We'll be on the run from society, holding hands and counting the days that have passed since our last shower. And if we're caught, we can show the world that love is possible even when we're locked up in separate padded rooms." I let my voice drop in anger as I unclenched my hands and crossed them.

"You think this is going to be some sappy romantic adventure? For a smart guy, you're running low on common sense. I'm running from a place that I don't feel safe in, from the family that I have left. We're going to be busy tracking leads on your dad. I'm going to be busy ignoring all the ghosts and monsters breathing down my neck. I don't have time to play out some stupid chick-flick." I huffed a bit in annoyance and continued.

"Why go through all of this trouble anyway? Don't want to bother going yourself to find someone who isn't really your dad?" Derek's head snapped up so fast that I almost felt worried he would suffer from whiplash. He had back on his usual glare.

"You _just_ found out about what I did back in Albany and you still think I should be out there?" He said, raising his voice a bit before gesturing outside the fence. "I ruined a kid's _life_. I took away his ability to walk without even a moment of hesitation. I almost killed him. I...I basically killed him." He stood up, towering over me. "I bruised you just by pushing you to sit down. One wrong move, one slip up, and I might do permanent damage. Even knowing that, you still think I should be allowed to roam free?"

I stood up to him, about to say something back, when a voice called from the doorway. We looked over to see a concerned Mrs. Talbot and Rae.

"Rae said she heard shouting. Are you okay, Chloe?" She scanned me up and down, looking for any sort of damage while Rae glared Derek down, making her way over to me to pull me back to the house. I stopped her and looked at Mrs. Talbot. She was watching Derek suspiciously.

"Do you need to talk to Ms. Gill, Derek?" I froze for a second, a thought suddenly coming to mind.

 _They're all scared of him…._

 _And they automatically made him the bad guy._

No wonder Derek's thoughts were so negative. Everyone here acted like he would explode at any second and kill someone.

I felt another tug from Rae. I quickly brushed her off before calling the nurse's attention. "We're fine, M-Mrs. Talbot. W-w-we were just arguing about the m-math homework he's making me do. I-it's my fault really. I-I r-r-really hate doing it, but it can't be avoided forever, r-r-right Derek?" He looked over at me, surprised, his clenched hands relaxing. I gave him a small smile, and he turned back to the nurse.

"Yeah...I'm her tutor. I can't let her get away with skipping math." He grumbled, looking away from her and Rae. He shoved his hands in his pockets, and for a second, I felt bad for yelling at him earlier. But I shoved that guilt away. He was using me, he told Simon something he shouldn't have, he deserved to feel my wrath. At least for a little bit.

Mrs. Talbot had the decency to blush at her incorrect judgement. "Oh my, I'm sorry, it sounded much more harsh than a simple lecture. Maybe next time don't be so aggressive, alright?" Derek gave a slight nod before she turned to me. "Now, Chloe, don't be a hassle for Derek. Do what he says, alright?" I huffed in slight annoyance and said that I would, but I gave Derek a look that said otherwise.

I turned to Rae to see her still glaring at Derek. I nudged her and gave her a small smile, but she only nodded at me before turning away, walking towards the door without me. I watched her in confusion before turning back to Derek.

"One last thing." I said, maintaining my glare. He just crossed his arms and looked down at me, waiting.

"I told you that I didn't want Simon to know what happened. I meant it. You had no right to bring it up." He rolled his eyes.

"It's not like I said anything specific. Just enough to - "

"To convince him to play the role of white knight?" I snapped. He turned away and slightly nodded.

"Well, you got what you wanted. Next time though, if I say don't tell anyone, I mean it. It was my problem, and I want it to stay that way." He looked at me then. His eyes brighter than usual as he narrowed his gaze. His fists seemed to tense for a second before relaxing. Watching him and waiting for an answer, I realized that he still looked like he was running some sort of fever. I made a mental note to revisit that later. I didn't want to care right now, I was supposed to be angry.

"If I recall, it was my problem too." he muttered. Now it was my turn to look away.

"You know what I mean. Just… don't tell anybody until I'm ready to talk about it." I muttered. I turned and headed toward the house, ready to hole myself up in my room and sleep the day away until dinner.


	19. Chapter 19

**Disclaimer: These ever adventurous characters belong to a Ms. Kelley Armstrong!**

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The rest of the day and the next passed quietly. Simon kept up his usual cheery mood while I brooded over what was possibly going to happen. I still wanted to leave, but I knew that it wasn't going to be as easy as it sounded. I made sure to run different kind of scenarios in my mind, playing them out like movies as I tried to think of what I would want the heroine to do in each one. I made sure to keep a pen and paper with me at all times, writing down a list of things that would be useful in case one of these scenarios became a reality.

Rae was eerily quiet as well, and I couldn't shake the feeling that she was somehow upset with me. As I thought back, I couldn't remember anything that I had said or done that might've angered her. So instead of confronting her about it, I decided to leave it be, giving her the space that she needed to work out her problem. I just hoped her problem wasn't me. I already had one target on my back.

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True to my word, it wasn't until Monday afternoon that I pulled Liz to our shared bedroom and told her the jist of what we had planned, as well as finally telling her who my friends with powers were.

To say that she was surprised would be an understatement.

It took at least an hour to get past all of her questions about Simon and Derek, and why we needed to find their dad.

"So… both Simon and their dad are sorcerers? What about Derek? He's not?" I shook my head, running a hand through my hair.

"I… actually don't know what he is, really. For some reason, he's very secretive about it. All I know about is super strength and super… hearing? I think?" I said, thinking it over. Truth be told, I actually didn't know much about Derek. All I knew was that he was a stubborn jerk who could actually reinforce his demands. And the fact that his past was somewhat unknown… but I wasn't going to tell Liz that. That information seemed to be more personal. I doubt that Derek even knew what Simon had told me.

"Strange… Maybe if we bug him enough he'll finally tell us! I never thought Derek the modest type. I always felt that if he had anything special, he would be more of a bully. But I really shouldn't say that, it's not like it's his fault for looking like that. I guess it's because he's not so open like everyone else."

I gave a small laugh. "Yeah, well I don't recommend nagging, but if it works, you'll have to tell me what sort of answers you get out of him." I turned back to the bag that I had begun packing, checking through everything to make sure that I wasn't missing anything important. Clothes I got, deodorant, toothbrush and paste, debit card, rubber bands…. Basically everything. I made sure to put in a first aid kit with extra wrappings, just in case, as well as the hammer I found in the toolbox downstairs. I zipped up my bag before hiding it under my bed, turning to Liz. Her bag was lying on her bed, abandoned, as she fiddled with her fingers. I sat down next to her.

"I know this is… weird. And hard. If you want to stay, I'm not going to force you. I just want to help." She nodded.

"I know. I just- I'm nervous. I've never run away before. And I don't even know the next time I'll see my granny or my little brother." I patted her shoulder.

"I'll make sure that you see them soon. I miss my dad and aunt too. Once we find their dad, Kit, we'll make sure to call home." She put her hand on top of mine, squeezing for a second before bouncing up.

"Alright! I'm ready for this! We'll make it like a quest or something! Defeat evil dragons or vampires or whatever to save the man in distress!" She yelled, jumping to the closet. I winced at her volume.

"Just remember, Liz, no one can know. Not even Tori." She nodded, looking down for a second.

"I know… I feel guilty, though. If we're in possible trouble, who's to say she isn't?"

 _Because she's part of the danger._ I muttered in my head. Instead I put on a comforting smile. "Tori doesn't have any sort of freaky power, right? So she should be safe here. She actually needs to be here, at least for a little while to make sure that she gets better. You and I can't exactly medicate and talk about our problems."

She gave a quiet giggle at that. "Yeah I guess you're right about that." She pulled out a few shirts and a couple pair of jeans. "So what time do we meet the guys again?"

I looked down at the watch that I managed to find in my suitcase. It was old, but it still worked just fine. Dad had gotten it for me a couple years back, saying that cellphones were unreliable because they were so fragile. The memory of my dad hit me a little harder than usual, remembering that mom's anniversary would be tomorrow. He always had a hard time functioning on her day. I wondered absently if he would remember to eat.

"It's about four now, so not for another ten hours, I think. Derek might make us leave sooner if we can. The more of a lead we have, the better our chances."

"You said earlier that he wasn't coming?"

I narrowed my eyes at her bag. "Yeah, he doesn't feel like it's safe for him to leave. Which is stupid." I said, a little louder than necessary. Since Derek seemed to have a habit of eavesdropping (though it wasn't really his fault) I figured I should use that to my advantage to tell him how stupid he was being without getting in his face.

Liz laughed. "Well, it's up to him. I don't care either way. I just want to get out of here. I miss my freedom."

I gave a soft smile. "Me too. Now hurry and pack, we don't want to stay locked up here for too long. The nurses might get a bit suspicious."

.

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When Liz had finally finished packing, we made our way downstairs. She instantly parted toward the couches where Tori was sitting, playing some kind of game on her laptop. I looked around a bit before spotting Simon outside again, his back to me. I smiled before I decided to make my way over.

He was lost in thought, and didn't even notice my approach until I was sitting right next to him. He was startled for a second, but just gave a smile when he realized it was just me.

"Hey, fancy seeing you here." He said, picking up the ball and putting it to the side. He reached over to my hand and gave a gentle squeeze. I squeezed a bit back before returning his smile.

"It's a nice day, and I figured you looked lonely. Your usual shadow is missing." I said, looking around to see that Derek was nowhere in sight.

He gave a laugh at that. "Yeah, Derek said he wasn't feeling too well. Definitely grumpier than usual. But he said that he should be better before we leave tonight." Simon shrugged.

I highly doubted that, seeing as though Derek had seemed a bit feverish throughout the past few days, but I didn't say anything. Instead I asked, "Are you still okay leaving? You think Derek will be okay?"

Simon nodded. "Yeah, we're still leaving. Derek was pretty adamant about that. He even made sure to set a couple alarms on his and my phones. Mind if I see yours?"

I let go of his hand to retrieve my phone before handing it to him. He quickly set the alarms before handing it back to me. I took a quick glance to see it set for 2 a.m.

"You seem like the type who can get up with just the first alarm. Liz, I'm not so sure." He and I gave a laugh at that.

"Well, it's a good thing we share a room then." He nodded.

"You've got everything packed? Are you guys all ready?" He asked, stretching out his arms. I wasn't surprised when one arm hooked around me as he relaxed back. As cheesy as it was, I couldn't help but secretly enjoy his attention. I wasn't used to a guy having an interest in me, I was usually looked over. Both figuratively and literally. The girls that were in my school were hard to contend with, especially when I only looked like I was ten and everyone else looked like movie stars.

I couldn't help the small voice that whispered that Simon didn't have much of a choice around here.

I quickly shook my thoughts out as I distanced myself a bit from him. While this was nice, I felt a bit uncomfortable. I wasn't usually a touchy-feely person, and so far, the majority of touches I got were from monsters. Well, monsters and Tori.

Simon's smile wavered for a moment, but it was gone the instant I saw it. He withdrew his arm. "Sorry, I have a habit of getting to handsy. I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable. Sorry." He raised his hand to his neck, rubbing it uncomfortably.

I quickly shook my head, feeling guilty instantly. "No! No, I'm sorry. I'm just not used to… physical attention, I guess." I laughed a little shakily. "Really, it's not your fault. I guess I'm just still getting used to it."

Simon quickly slapped his forehead. "Of course! I should've known that! Derek warned me to be careful. He said that you would be more jumpy than usual because-"

"Because of what?" I snapped, fearing that Derek had yet again let something slip. Simon just looked confused at my sudden change in behavior.

"...Because you're having a hard time telling the difference between ghosts and monsters now…? Since the thing in the classroom attacked?"

I took a deep breath and let it out, all of my anger leaving with it. I shouldn't of assumed anything.

"Sorry. Yeah, I guess that's part of the reason. I don't know anything about these things. They could change to look like regular people for all I know. Or, I guess regular ghosts, since I'm pretty sure these things aren't alive…."

I drifted off for a second, thinking of the different possibilities before Simon gave me a nudge.

"Hey, it's okay. I'm sure that there's not many of them out there. You only saw that one, what? About a week ago now? A week and a half? I'm sure that the chances of you encountering another one are slim."

 _Not as slim as I would like to think._ I thought to myself, thinking of the one that lives in the basement.

Simon started to get up, grabbing the ball to continue dribbling out on the court. He made a quick basket before catching it and looking back at me.

He gave a sure and kind smile. "Chloe, don't worry. There's going to be three of us. We'll watch each other's backs."

I smiled back. "You're right. We'll be okay." And for a moment, I was able to calm down. We were kids who were different, weird. We could handle more than most.

I could believe that.

I would believe that.

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I had to believe that.


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed reading this version's first part of The Darkest Powers trilogy! Part two will be coming soon, so please don't hurt me!**

 **Thank you everyone for reading, commenting, and/or favoriting/ following. I couldn't have done it without you! Please, if you have any sort of suggestions or edits, or just normal comments, don't be afraid to post them! I love reading them!**

 **Disclaimer: The characters belong to a kind Ms. Kelley Armstrong.**

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I jumped to the sound of my alarm, narrowly escaping the the prison of my old car seat and the sound of my mother screaming and gasping. I quickly reached for my phone and shut it off, quickly wiping off my tears and looking to see Liz still snoring away. I sighed quietly as I got up, straightening my clothes.

Before we had gone to bed, Liz and I made sure to be already dressed and ready before we left, making sure that we could leave quickly without risking extra noise. Jeans had been a given, but I informed Liz to wear multiple layers of socks, as well as layer tops. In total, we both had managed two sport-bras, a tank top, t-shirt, and then a hoodie. We both also donned on hats and gloves, just to be safe. It was starting to get colder out, especially at night.

I pulled on my shoes quietly and reached over to Liz, gently shaking her awake. After a few seconds, her eyes blearily opened and looked at me confused. I motioned for her to get up and grab her bag, and her eyes cleared up. She gave me a smile before quietly went to work.

We made our way quietly downstairs and to the back door to meet up with Simon, and as soon as we saw him, I felt my heart drop. Something was wrong. He looked scared. I hurried over to him.

"What? What's wrong?" I whispered, anxious. My heart was going a mile a minute, and I could feel my palms start to sweat through my bindings and my gloves.

Simon leaned closer to say, "It's Derek. He wasn't in bed when I got up. I checked the bathroom, but he's not there either."

Liz came over. "Is it possible he changed his mind and left early? To check the place out?" Simon shook his head.

"I don't know… he seemed pretty adamant about staying here. He usually doesn't change his mind so easily…"

I gave a small sigh as I took off my bag and handed it to Liz. "You two go ahead. I'll go and look for him, then catch up."

Simon shook his head. "You shouldn't have to do that. I can go -" I cut him off.

"No. You know your dad, you know where he might've gone. We can't have you lagging behind. I'll go find him. You and Liz just go while you can. I'll catch up."

Simon and Liz looked like they really didn't want to go, but I persisted and pushed us to the door. Simon just gave a long sigh as he punched in the code, letting us all out without any trouble. Once we all stood outside the door, Liz and Simon gave me a quick hug before heading around the house and toward the direction of the old factory. As soon as they were outside of my sight, I began the search for Derek.

Simon had said that he wasn't around inside the house, so the only possible chances were around the house or already out ahead of us. I decided to walk out in front of me for a bit. There were a couple patches of bushes that seemed pretty thick around the outsides of the fence, but everywhere else was pretty clear. Luckily there was enough moonlight to let me make out where I was headed. The closest neighborhood with streetlights were to far in front of the house to provide any help.

It was as I was jumping the fence when I heard it. I quickly snapped my head toward the sound and tried to pinpoint where it came from. It was just ahead of me, a bit to the left. I quickly made jumped over, heading cautiously toward the bundle of bushes. For all I knew, it could've been some kind of wounded animal.

It wasn't until I heard a cut off cry that I rushed toward the bushes. It was likely that Derek had underestimated just how sick he was and didn't want Simon to see.

I rounded the corner and froze.

Kneeling on the ground was Derek, but it took me a minute to actually recognize him. His back was turned toward me as he heaved into parts of the bush. The bones in his back seemed to be almost shifting, making his body look contorted. His muscles jumped through his skin as his skin was tearing in different places, but blood wasn't oozing from the wound. It was something dark, black even. It rustled as the wind blew past it…

It was fur. Derek's skin was ripping for _fur_.

All of a sudden, Simon's voice echoed through my head.

" _Oooo, looks like someone's in the dog house!"_

" _Good Derek."_

Derek's face everytime Simon said something referring to a dog…

It was then that Derek snapped his head to me, the one visible eye going wide before turning back to the bushes.

 _Werewolf. Derek's a werewolf._

He whined a bit as he took in a breath, his muscles spasming again. I unfroze then, coming closer to kneel next to him and ignoring the smell of vomit.

"Derek?" I whispered, hesitant to get too close. He slightly turned his head again, his eye narrowing at me.

"Go." His voice sounded guttural, as if his vocal cords were changing too. I shook my head. As scary as he might look, he was in pain. He saved me when I was locked up, it was my turn to repay the favor.

"No." I said, getting a bit closer and placing my hand on his gently. "What can I do?"

His head lowered, his pants echoing around us. "Don't -" he got cut off by a series of coughs. I waited for him to regain his breath, moving my hand from his to his back, rubbing it slightly. I didn't know what else to do, this seemed to be the only thing I could do. Just… comfort him.

"Please.." he panted quietly, looking up slightly to meet my eyes. "Don't - Don't go." My eyes widened a bit as he looked away, heaving again. Never would I have thought to hear those words from him.

I quickly shook my head, making myself comfortable as I began to rub his back more with both my hands. Of course he would ask that, he was terrified. I would be too, if I was going through all of this pain.

"I won't leave. I'm here." I whispered calmly. "I'm here." He whimpered again, and I could feel his muscles spasming and his shoulder blade snap. My hands jumped back for a second, before putting them on a different place on his back.

I felt nauseous. Feeling bones break and move under someone's skin was terrifying. But I continued. I wasn't going to leave. I wasn't going to show him how scared I was, because he was the one who was truly terrified, the one who was going through all of this pain. I kept encouraging.

"It'll be okay. I'm here. You'll be okay. Just try to relax, don't try to fight it. Let it run its course."

It took about ten minutes of unnatural shifting before his body stopped, staying for a second before reversing back, his bones realigning and the fur receding. I made sure to rub the parts that were coming back slowly, trying to make it (maybe) a little less painful.

He still kept his face away from me, even as he gave his last whimper and fell to the ground. He had rolled onto his back, his arm over his face.

I sat still for a few minutes, letting the silence wash over us as he caught his breath. My hands were bundled back up, resting between my legs as I tried to look anywhere but at Derek. He had the foresight to strip down to his underwear before he… shifted. It was a good idea, but I couldn't help but blush at the sight. I'd seen men in their underwear before, or in swimsuits, but none of them really compared to Derek.

Derek was _definitely_ not chubby. He was built like the freakin' terminator. He wasn't quite as big as Arnold Swartzenager, but he was pretty damn close… especially for someone who was only 17.

Our silence was interrupted by the slam of a backdoor. I stilled, looking at Derek in fear. The fear only grew as I heard Mrs. Gill's voice cut through the quiet.

"Chloe? Simon? I know you guys are out here. Come here now." I looked around me, trying to think of something. After a few seconds, a plan popped up, and I jumped over to grab one of Derek's shoes. He made a move to get up, but I pushed him down. I mouthed for him to stay as I took off one of my shoes and headed toward Mrs. Gill. I felt a wrist around my ankle, but I shook it off.

I made my way over to her, jumping as I tried to get the shoe on. Her narrowed eyes were glued to me.

"S-S-sorry, I w-w-was just g-g-getting some f-fresh air. I f-f-elt a b-bit sick…" I stuttered, drawing closer to her. She cast her eyes down me for a moment before meeting mine, walking up halfway to meet me.

"You do realize that that's not your shoe, right?" I acted surprised as I looked down.

"O-oh. I must've g-grabbed the wr-wrong o-one… It was p-p-pretty d-d-dark…" I said, looking up at her and trying to look embarrassed. It was quickly wiped off of my face as she grabbed my arm and shook me a bit.

"Don't give me that shit. I know all about your little escape plan." Her grin turned malicious as she gripped me harder. "There's no way I'm letting you go. You can see them, you can talk to them, and with just a few more tests, you can bring them here."

I started to panic more as I tried to pull away. "Wh-what? T-tests? A-And le-let g-"

She just grabbed me with her other hand. "Tell me, what did it say? The shadow in the basement?" I looked at her with pure fear. She _did_ know something. She knew about that thing in the basement.. The Shadow Person. She shook me again, harder.

"What did it look like? What did it say?" I continued to try and fight against her grip, but found that it wasn't needed. Derek had crept up behind her before grabbing her and punching her in the middle of the stomach. She instantly fell, and Derek laid her down gently, double checking to make sure she was still breathing.

He gave a small sigh of relief as he stood back up, looking over me real quick before handing back my shoe. I gave a shaky smile and took his off, trading. We quickly put them back on and stood back up, him quickly grabbing my arm and practically throwing me over the fence. He was over by the time I picked myself up, and before I could complain, he grabbed my hand and dragged me forward.

"We need to hurry. They knew the plan. We have to warn Simon." I practically was running to match his pace.

"It sounded like they knew more than just the plan." I said quietly and out of breath. He just gave a quick nod in acknowledgment.

We kept quiet for the next few minutes, Derek continuously dragging me behind him. My hands were crying out in pain, but I stayed quiet as long as I could, too scared to make extra noise. I knew how important it was to get to Simon and Liz as quickly as possible, but my hand and my lungs weren't going to last much longer.

It was right about when I was going to say something when Derek stopped abruptly, causing me to ram straight into his back. I groaned silently in pain.

"Ouch…" I muttered grumpily. He let his hand slip from mine as I made my way to his side. I looked up to see him focused intently on something. "What's wrong?" I whispered. He raised his hand, motioning for me to stay quiet. After a moment, his eyes went wide and he hurriedly pushed me behind one of the houses we were passing by. We waited there for a moment, and I could hear the sound of a car driving slowly past us, before turning away. I looked up at Derek.

"You think it's them?" I asked quietly. He shrugged.

"Best not to take the chance of getting seen. We'll travel between the yards for now. Make sure no cars spot us." I nodded and started out with him, thankful that he decided to take things a little more slowly.

For the most part, we were able to get through with little problem. There were just a few fences we had to jump, with Derek practically throwing me over before he jumped to join me. It was all going well until we were just across the street from one of the factory's entrances. Derek had stopped and hid us behind someone's bushes.

I peaked over a bit to see a car parked in front of it, headlights still on as the passengers stepped out, turning on their flashlights. I squinted a bit to see that both were armed. I quickly got back down.

"You don't think they would actually shoot us, right?" Derek huffed and shook his head no.

"They're probably using it for an intimidation tactic." He waited another moment before grabbing me and pulling us away from the entrance and to a dark corner near the factory's fencing.

"We'll have to climb over. Think you can do it?" I nodded as I began to climb as quietly as I could. The fence was higher than I had thought, but I was able to make it to the top. I peered down to see that Derek was already on the other side, waiting. He caught my gaze and motioned for me to jump. I shook my head. There was no way. I had a hard enough time walking and not injuring myself. There was no way I was going to survive jumping.

I could almost hear his eye roll as he gestured that he would catch me. He then signed for me to hurry.

I sighed, mentally counting to three before pushing myself off of the fence. Sure enough, Derek caught me right before I hit the ground and quickly put me down, making his way to the planned meeting point. I followed after him, quietly laughing to myself at how crazy this all was.

 _Well,_ I thought. _I guess Derek passed the trust fall, though I hope he doesn't expect me to catch him next time._

Derek rushed us to behind the main factory building, pausing to listen for a moment before continuing. About halfway past the side of the factory was a back door, left unlocked and rusting. Derek pulled open the door quietly, pushing me inside before closing it behind him. He pulled me down the long storage corridor. Boxes lining the walls as far as I could see. We were about to take the next door through when Derek suddenly stopped. He pointed to a stack of boxes.

"Quick, climb up and hide behind one of the boxes. They won't think to look up." I nodded and made my way up, seeing that he was doing the exact same thing across from me. Derek was able to hide himself in the shadows while I was able to fit in a small spot, boxes covering me from all sides, except for a little crack that I could peek through. We waited there for a few minutes before the sounds of footsteps made their way to the door.

My eyes widened as they made their way through the door. There, standing in front of two unknown guards, was Dr. Davidoff. The guards' flashlights showed enough for me to see that he wasn't too happy.

"Search the area. We need to find them before they get any farther." He snapped. The guards continued in, searching around the boxes and further down the hall. I couldn't help the small smile of victory that went across my face. As much as I hated to admit it, Derek was right. Most people didn't look higher than sound of radio static made me jump, quickly looking around for the source.

Dr. Davidoff pulled out his radio. "What do you have." He commanded. The voice was more quiet, but I was able to make out what they were saying.

"Rae's still with us, but the witch escaped. We're looking for her now." Dr. Davidoff gave a bit of a growl. "You let her ESCAPE?" He shouted. I cringed a bit at the sheer volume. The radio sounded again.

"Red team reporting. We've captured Elizabeth. Still no sign of Kit's boys."

I could feel my heart freeze. They had Liz. They knew who Kit was. According to Derek and Simon, their dad had disappeared before they were caught….

"Good. Blue Team, go ahead and leave. Red team, Liz will stay with us until we find the others. She may have some more information."

Confirmation was given before the two guards came back to Davidoff. He motioned for them to follow him out the door to search other rooms again. After a few minutes of silence, I could hear Derek start to get down. I was about to join him, but he stopped me, pointing to the window that was above my head.

Getting the message, I reached up to open it, waiting for him to make his way over. When he came up, I was still struggling with it.

"It's stuck." I whispered. He nodded and listened for a moment before taking off his sweater, wrapping up his fist before he punched through the glass. The sound made me wince, and he quickly looked down through the window.

"It's not too far. I'll jump first. As soon as I land, jump. I'll grab you and then we run. They're on their way back." Before I could nod, he was already up and over. I took a deep breath and climbed through the window before falling out. I felt my clothes catch on the glass for a second before I was falling again. I fell onto Derek and was immediately dropped on my feet, both of us taking off as fast as we could to one of the side buildings. After a few seconds of running, Derek's head whipped around to look at me quickly before he veered slightly to the right. We ran towards the shed closest to us, and Derek quickly snapped the lock and pushed the door open, shoving me inside and closing the door.

I was quickly herded into the corner, Derek and I blocked from sight by old and broken equipment. He peeked behind him real quick before looking down at me.

"Where were you hurt?" He asked quietly. I looked at him in shock.

"H-hurt?" I asked quietly. I looked down at myself, seeing if I had lost a leg or something. I suddenly felt pinpricks of pain across my stomach. I looked a little closer to see that blood was starting to show through my layers, along with small cuts through my clothes. There seemed to be about two cuts, not too deep, but enough to bleed a bit.

Derek grumbled to himself as he unwrapped his sweater from his hand. I held up my hands. "Wait. I have more layers." He nodded and waited. I was about to take off the outer layer before I turned to him.

"Um… could you turn around or something?" He rolled his eyes.

"I'm going to have to help you wrap the injuries. I'm going to see your stomach either way." I huffed and began peeling away the clothes. Derek, thankfully, was turned to the side so that he could watch the door. I was wearing a few sport bras, so I wasn't worried about him seeing that, I was just…. Shy, I guess. I never had the nerve to wear bikinis, let alone take my shirt off in front of someone.

As soon as I finished taking off my tank top, I handed it to Derek. I crossed my arms over my chest, waiting for Derek to do what he needed.

He listened for a moment before ripping the shirt into long strips. He measured how long each one was against my body before huffing.

"Not enough, they'll have to go completely around to hold." He reached past me to grab the T-shirt that I put down and pulled back quickly to start tearing. I didn't have enough time to protest.

Once he was finished he tied the shirts together before quickly wrapping them around me.

"You need to be more careful." He grumbled. "We don't have time to stop every five minutes to patch you up." I glared down at him wrapping.

"Oh, my bad, let me just tell that to the monsters and the glass. I'm sure they'll understand." I snapped back quietly. I gasped slightly as he tied the bandages in the front a bit too tight. I glared up to see him glaring back.

"I'm just trying to sa-" He stopped abruptly and turned his head to the entrance. I listened and heard voices drawing nearer.

He pushed me back further a bit. "Put your sweater back on, quickly, quietly." I nodded as I reached for it, pulling my arms through. As soon as I got my head through, the door burst open. I quickly pulled the sweater all the way down and winced at the slight sound of fabric.

"Simon? Chloe? Are you in here?" Dr. Davidoff called. From the sounds of it, he was the only one in this shed, but I could hear the others banging around in the others.

"Derek?" He called again. It sounded as if he had stopped moving forward. Derek was still tense in front of me, just waiting to jump and run. His hand had reached out behind him, blocking me in.

"Derek, you know you're not ready to leave, right? You don't want a repeat of Albany, do you? Turn yourself in, let us help you."

I could feel Derek's hesitation, and I put a hand on his arm. He looked at me for a second before looking back ahead. Davidoff was pacing around the building, flashing the light.

"You and I both know that the world isn't ready to face someone like you." There was a few more minutes of silence, and while Derek made no move to leave, I kept my hand on him, just to be sure.

"How about Chloe, hmm? You know you can get charged for kidnapping a minor. You do realize she's only thirteen, right Derek? If you just come forward, we'll make sure that you don't get into any trouble."

Derek snorted, while I cursed under my breath. I whispered over, "I'm sixteen, damnit." But Derek just glared at me to be quiet. I took off my hand, slightly relieved. He'd lost him. The moment Davidoff made it about Derek and not about others, he'd lost him.

The sound of the radio came again, but I wasn't able to make out what was being said. I looked at Derek, gauging his reaction.

"Bring Liz outside of the warehouses. We'll give them a demonstration." With that, Davidoff left ours, slamming the door behind him. Derek peaked out before relaxing slightly. He nodded over to me and we made our way out of our hiding place.

"What do they mean, demonstration?" I asked Derek, worried. In movies, it was never good hearing 'demonstration' and then the name of your ally. But this was real, this was supposed to be a mental health group gathering back teenagers. They wouldn't do anything, right?

Derek just pointed to a slim window that we could peer out of, if we climbed. I made my way over, quickly climbing to the top of the stack of old supplies and equipment. The window was slightly open, allowing us to hear outside. I looked down at Derek, who decided to stay down.

"Do you know where Simon is?" Derek shook his head.

"No, but I can tell he's far enough away. His scent leads past Dr. Davidoff. If they don't have him now…" He shrugged. I let out a small breath of relief.

"Do you happen to smell Tori anywhere? I'm assuming that she's the witch that escaped." Derek gave a huff at that.

"Yeah, but it's far. She's long gone." _No surprise there._ I thought. I looked back outside to see a group of guards carrying a tied up Liz. When they came to Dr. Davidoff, he instructed them to put her on the ground. They plopped her down, none too gently, and she groaned in pain. Davidoff stood next to her, his eyes scanning the area.

I sucked in a panic breath as he was handed a gun from one of his guards. He pointed it straight at Liz. Ice ran through my veins.

"Now, I really don't want to do this, but maybe you kids will listen now." He unlocked the safety and Liz whimpered quietly through her binds.

He cleared his throat before he called out, "We need you guys to come out. Now. I would hate to hurt Ms. Elizabeth over here, but you're giving me very little of a choice. You have until the count of ten…"

I looked to Derek. "They've got a gun at Liz." I whispered, scrambling down as fast as I could. Derek looked at me, wide-eyed.

"Nine…"

I was shaking, my chest felt like it was being squeezed. When I finally got down to the bottom, I tried to head to the door, but Derek grabbed my arm. He glared down at me.

"What do you think you're doing?" He demanded. Davidoff continued counting down, and my palms began to sweat. I felt like I was going to barf.

"I-I-I need to g-g-get her. They -" Derek cut me off.

"I can't let you go out there. Who's to say they won't kill the both of you?" He growled.

"Five!" Davidoff called out. I could hear Liz struggling, whimpering and crying. I needed to reach her. I quickly turned to him and kicked him in the shin. I knew it wouldn't do much damage, but it was enough to shock him. His grip loosened and I pulled out of it.

"I can't watch her die! Not again!" I whispered loudly, running away from him and toward Liz. Derek tried to reach for me, but I quickly opened the door and shut it right behind me, hoping that he would take the hint and stay inside. I looked forward to see Davidoff staring at me, a smile on his face.

"Why Chloe! What a pleasure to see you. And here I thought I was talking to empty boxes." He grinned, a creepy, long victory grin that sent shivers through me. I walked over slowly, my hands raising.

"P-P-Please, d-d-don't h-hurt her. I-I'll go w-with y-you. So p-please…" He lowered the gun from Liz, and I breathed a quiet sigh. Liz seemed to as well, giving me a grateful look. I gave her a small smile, wiping my face up a bit as I continued to make my way over. I turned and glared at Davidoff. He motioned to the guards to restrain me. I grunted as they forced my hands behind me, making sure to hit every single sore spot known to man. I felt them zip-tie my wrists together before they sat me down next to Liz. She bent over to rest her head in my shoulder, giving a quiet sob. I placed my head over hers, trying to comfort her.

"Tell me Chloe, have you, by any chance, seen Derek or Simon? Maybe saw Tori running past you?" I took a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves.

"N-no.." I started quietly. "W-w-we got separated. I w-w-was supposed t-t-to meet them b-back s-s-somewhere in the neighborhood w-we passed. T-The house w-w-with the tallest t-tree." I winced a bit to myself slightly at how lame it sounded, but Davidoff didn't seem to notice. He turned to a couple guards, whispering instructions before turning back to me with a smile.

"Well, Chloe, how sweet of you to help us. I'm sure Liz really appreciates the effort." She gave a shuddering breath as I shuffled a bit to put her behind me slightly. I glared.

"Yeah, well, when someone's pointing a gun at a friend, it makes it hard to stay quiet."

His smile became feral. "Yes. I find that's often the case." A guard reappeared at Davidoff's side, whispering again. My heart dropped down to my stomach as his face turned sour. He turned back to me.

"Tsk tsk, Chloe. It seems as though you've been lying." I stiffened, looking up at him. He pulled his gun back up.

"Now, I was informed that there were two sets of prints near where you came out of. I wonder… Just who are you hiding Chloe?" I gulped silently, trying to think of an answer before I heard a door slam open.

I hung my head in defeat, my eyes slamming shut.

This had all gone so wrong. There were four of us who ran, and only one was still out there. Well, two. Tori managed to escape for now.

"Put down the gun." Derek demanded. I peaked over at him to see that the guards stood a few feet from him, their guns pointed at him, waiting. He was glaring straight at Davidoff.

"Why Derek, how kind of you to show up. I was starting to think you wouldn't."

"Get. The gun. Away from her." He growled. Davidoff looked a little nervous for a second, before shaking out of it and putting back on his grin. "Now Derek, you have no need to worry. I need Chloe, unfortunately. She's viewed as a success. We'll need to study her further. Liz, on the other hand…"

It all happened so fast. Before I could process what he meant, he turned the barrel toward Liz and fired. Three times. I felt something splash on me, something warm. I didn't process what it was until I felt Liz slide away from me. I slowly turned my head, dread building. She laid on the ground, her eyes open and her jaw slack. Blood was leaking from her head and neck, quickly pooling around the both of us.

"L-L-Liz?" I asked quietly. Everything became distant, I could hear the sounds of a fight, but it was too far out. Liz was all I could see. Her empty eyes were staring away, the last of her tears drifting away.

"Liz…." I moaned, leaning forward. I rested my head on her shoulder, slamming my eyes shut and begging myself to just wake up from this horrible nightmare.

"Liz… wake up…. Pleaasseee.." I cried. After a few seconds of not waking up, I broke. I felt like a little kid again. I felt like I was back at that accident, trying to shake mom awake. I felt hands pull me up, but I fought. I kicked and screamed at whoever it was to let me go. To leave me with her. With mom… with Liz….

As I was dragged away, I couldn't pull my gaze from her. This was my fault. I shouldn't have ever agreed to this stupid plan. I should have never convinced her to come. I was supposed to stay with her. I was supposed to… to…

To get her home.

I screamed again, trying to fight the guards off. I bit and spit, clawed and kicked, but nothing worked. They just gripped me harder. I heard someone call for a tranq, and I looked in time to see someone aim a gun at me. Next to them, three guys were carrying someone. Derek's face flashed in my mind before I felt something stab into me. I fell quickly.


End file.
